No Good Deed Goes Unpunished--A Chicago Fire Story
by mom2jlg
Summary: Firefighters are used to seeing people on the worst day of their lives. They pull people from burning buildings, car wrecks. It's all in a day's work. Kelly Severide pulls a woman from a car accident and she takes it all too personally.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

What a night/morning!

Somehow summer in the city always managed to translate into "crazy". It was like the heat did something to peoples' brains.

This time...some truly brilliant individuals decided that 3AM was the ideal time to have a weenie roast. So they jumped the chain link fence and fired up their neighbor's grill. They _might_ have gotten a little carried away with the lighter fluid...because the flames shot up...like... a dozen feet in the air...set fire to the one tree in the whole yard...which in turn spread to the porch and eventually engulfed the entire back of the house.

Then these idiots had to compound matters by trying to dump any available liquid on the blaze _before _calling 911. Unfortunately all they had on hand was about a case and a half of beer and a couple pints of hard liquor.

Everyone got out of the house okay...but when the homeowner realized what his neighbors had done he ran to his car, popped the trunk...and grabbed a sawed off shotgun.

Needless to say, him exercising his right to bear arms made an already hairy situation even worse.

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Severide was looking forward to a week's vacation...starting in two more days. He and Alyssa were taking the kids to a theme park in Ohio. They were going with Lyssa's brother Joey, his wife EmmaLynn, and their four kids. Should be a good time...family...fun...relaxing...

"Well, you can't go! Nah-nyeah! Nah-nyeah!"

That was what Kelly heard the minute he opened his back door.

"But Wexie wanna go!"

"Well you _can't_!" Maggie teased.

Home Sweet Home.

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"Hey!" Kelly said. "What's goin' on? Is that how you're supposed to talk to your sister, Maggie Grace?"

The two little girls turned to look at him as he came into the four seasons room and dropped his bag.

"Daddy!" Lexi cried as she ran over and hugged him around the legs. "Maggie no wet Wexie pway dow-haus!"

Kelly picked the almost three year old up into his arms and gave her a little kiss on her forehead. This was a big day. Today he and Lyssa taking Lexi over to St. Pasqual's Early Childhood center for her preschool screening. It was the school's practice to individually assess each child and try to make the classes the best fit possible. They had gone through it with the twins and with Maggie...and now it was Lexi's turn.

She just didn't know it.

"You're gonna go with Mommy and Daddy to check out your new school today." Kelly told her as he set the baby back on her feet.

"My _old _school..." Maggie pointed out.

"You're not helping, Maggie Grace."

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Most kids knew when they heard their full names that they were in trouble. He remembered when his grandmother would holler out _"Kelly Michael!"_...it still sent shivers down his spine.

But Maggie was oblivious. And Alyssa warned him that he had to stop referring to her as a little princess and get tough with her. Otherwise she'd be a monster long before she ever reached her pre-teen years.

It was easier said than done.

Be tough...he told himself. Be tough.

"You need to stop pickin' on your sister." he said as he scooped Maggie up and carried her out to the living room.

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Alyssa was coming down the stairs and she shot her husband a strange look as he swept right past her.

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Kelly plopped his Baby Girl down on the brown leather sectional sofa and knelt down in front of her.

"You need to talk nice..." he said. "And stop teasin' Lexi. Otherwise the only place you're goin' today is straight to your room for time out."

Maggie's teal blue eyes opened wide in horror.

"But Uncle Mouch is takin' me to the 'Merican Girl Store! To play with the dollhouses!"

The American Girl Store downtown was celebrating some big anniversary of their historical dolls...and they were having an event where girls could play with all the different dolls from the different periods in specially constructed dollhouses all decorated to reflect each story. You had to buy tickets months in advance...and apparently it was a pretty big deal.

"Well, girls who talk nasty to their baby sisters don't deserve special treats." Kelly said. "And I'm sure Uncle Mouch would agree with that."

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He pulled his phone out of his pocket, tapped in his password, and set the alarm for five minutes.

"Okay...you're gonna sit here for five minutes. " he told his daughter. "Then you're gonna go tell Lexi you're sorry. You understand?"

Maggie nodded...he bottom lip turning out in a little pout...her big blue eyes filling with tears.

Stay strong...he told himself. Stay strong.

He started the timer, stood up, and set his phone on the top shelf of the bookcase.

He'd already figured out Maggie knew how to reset the alarm, so he wasn't taking any chances.

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Kelly went back to the kitchen where Alyssa had a cup of coffee waiting. He wrapped his arms around his wife and breathed in the fresh scent of lemon shampoo.

"Good job, Honey..." she told him, a teasing glint in her eye. "Good job."

"Hey..." he growled. "No teasin'...or I'll put _you_ in time out."

"I'd like to see you try, Severide..."

Then Alyssa started to laugh.

"What?" he asked.

"Nothing, Honey..." she giggled. "I'll just never understand...how you can run _into_ burning buildings...dive into the _freezing _cold lake..._repel _down the side of a skyscraper..."

She looked up into his blue eyes.

"And yet two little girls can turn you into the biggest cream puff on God's green earth."

Kelly chuckled himself.

"Not to mention what their mama does to me..." he said as he leaned down to kiss her. "Don't forget about that..."

"You'll have to tell me all about it Severide."

"How 'bout I show you?"

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But he was interrupted by the alarm on his phone going off.

Maggie's five minutes in time out was up.

Kelly went back to the living room and grabbed his phone from the top shelf of the bookcase. Once he'd silenced the alarm, he crossed the room to the sofa and knelt down in front of his daughter...who was wiping at her eyes and her nose with the back of her hand. And Daddy wiped his hand down his face. The tears were almost more than he could stand.

Stay strong...he reminded himself...be tough.

Alyssa was right...burning buildings and ten foot flames didn't faze him in the least. But two little girls turned him into a marshmallow.

"Okay, Maggie..." he said. "Time out's over. Whaddya need to do now?"

Maggie looked up at him...teal blue eyes still full of tears.

"Tell Lexi "sorry"?" she said softly.

Kelly nodded.

"That's right. Do you know why?"

"'Cause I teased-ed her?"

He nodded again.

"You don't like when Andy teases you, do you?"

Maggie shook her head vigorously, strawberry blonde curls bouncing all around as she did.

Of course she didn't like when Andy teased her. He was a big meanie sometimes.

"Well...Lexi doesn't like to be teased any more than you do." Kelly said. "What did Mrs. Beatty always tell you in school?"

"Treat people the way you want 'dem to treat you?" Maggie said.

It was hard to remember all the things teachers said...they talked a lot.

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After Maggie had apologized...and Kelly explained to Lexi that she had to accept that apology...Maggie went off with Mouch to the American Girl Store.

And Lexi crossed her little arms over her chest.

"Wexie wanna go pway dow-haus." she grumbled.

Kelly picked her up in his arms.

"Maybe we can go another time, Sweetie." he told her. "But today Mommy and I are gonna take you to see your new school. You're gonna meet the teachers...and check out all the toys...and when we're done...we'll go get some ice cream."

"Owse cweam?" Lexi squealed, her eyes lighting up like Christmas.

Kelly winced at the high decibel...

"Sure..." he said. "What kind do you want?"

Lexi started counting on her fingers.

"Choc-wait...traw-berry...bubb-o gum...choc-wait tip...peanut bubber cwunch..."

Kelly couldn't help but laugh as he carried her toward the stairs.

"You're gonna get a tummy ache if you eat all that!"

"Uh-uh!" Lexi said. "

Then she went back to counting...

"An' cookie an' cweam...and cookie dough...an'..."

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Kelly held open the door of Room 2...and he couldn't help but think in another year...he'd never walk through that door again.

Andy and Jesse had three years of pre-school...so did Maggie. But because Lexi's birthday was at the end of August, and she was just turning three...she'd only get two years at St. Pasqual's Early Childhood program.

Where had the time gone? They had gotten her at eight months as their foster child...then eight months after that they got the green light to adopt her.

That was a year ago...almost to the day now.

He gently ushered Alyssa through the door, then reached down for Lexi's hand.

"C'mon..." he said.

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Now, the other kids had all been shy and timid when they entered their new classroom for the first time...but not Lexi. Kelly didn't know if it was because she had been there before with Maggie...or what...but she bounced into the basement classroom like she was ready to take on the world.

Mrs. Beatty, the lead teacher approached the family. She knelt down in front of the little girl...she was so cute in her pink polka-dot bike shorts and her little white top with the butterflies in it. Her dark brown hair was arranged in two pigtails...and her blue eyes sparkled with excitement.

"You must be Lexi." Mrs. Beatty said. "I'm so happy to meet you."

Lexi smiled.

"Hi!" she chirped.

"Would you like to come play with some of our toys?" the teacher asked.

The little girl nodded enthusiastically...and ran across the room to the small table already set up with puzzles and other manipulatives.

Mrs. Beatty smiled at Kelly and Alyssa before she went to sit with Lexi.

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Ms. Monahan, the preschool director, invited the parents to sit down while Mrs. Beatty and one of her co-teachers played with Lexi and tried to get a feel for her. She'd known the Severide's for about ten years now...ever since they'd brought the twins for their preschool screening. She had a good sense of them as parents and as a couple...so this was already just a formality.

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"Do you like puzzles, Lexi?" Mrs. Beatty asked.

Lexi nodded.

"Are they your favorite toys?"

This time Lexi shook her head.

"What is you favorite toy?"

Lexi smiled...

"Pink fi-tuck!" she said. "An' pink fi-haus!"


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

"Hey..."

Severide turned to see Matt Casey coming toward him, and he stopped to wait for his fellow Lieutenant.

"Hey..." he said.

Casey fell into step beside him...

"How was the vacation?" Casey asked.

Severide gave his friend a rueful grin.

"Next time I get the bright idea to go away with eight kids for a week...promise you'll lock me in the equipment room or something...for my own good."

Casey chuckled.

"Why? What happened..."

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Kelly broke in to a grin.

"It wasn't bad...it was just...going all the time. The boys...you know how they are with the roller coasters..."

Casey nodded.

Both boys loved the thrill rides. Especially Andy. He could ride every coaster in any amusement park...sun up to sun down. He never got tired.

"And Lexi..." Kelly went on. "She ran up to those measuring sticks at every ride...and if I had to tell her no...she wasn't tall enough..."

Matt had to bite back a laugh...

"She thought most of the kid rides were boring...and the ones there you had to be under a certain height...especially the ones that went in the air...Maggie and Ainsley were scared...so she ended up going by herself."

"How'd she do?"

Lexi was about a month and a half shy of three. To go on flying rides by herself...

Severide shook his head.

"Every single one of 'em...I had to go pull her off at the end." he said. "She wouldn't come off."

"Sounds like you had your hands full." Matt said.

"Yeah..." Kelly agreed. "We shoulda had her about fifteen years ago."

Casey laughed and slapped him on the shoulder.

"It's hell to get old." he said.

Severide shot his counterpart a dirty look.

"Look who's talkin'?"

Casey was about a year older than Severide...and Severide never let his friend forget it.

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The first call came in before they even finished roll call that morning.

"Engine 51...Truck 81...Ambulance 61...Squad 3...traffic accident."

The call was on the Wilson Street exit of the Eden's. And right away Severide could see this was a big deal. There was one of those Smart cars that got into it with a Lincoln Navigator...and the Smart car obviously lost. Then there was a Honda run up on the guard rail...and for a minute Kelly wondered how in the hell it had gotten all the way up there.

The undercarriage was hung up on the metal atop the cement...and it's front wheels were dangling over the Eden's.

That's where they were going first.

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"Get the chains!" Severide hollered as he jumped off the Squad. "Stabilize that vehicle!"

He ran around to the driver's side...and he saw a woman...maybe in her mid thirties...twisting and writhing and pounding on the window with the palms of her hands.

"Help me!" she cried hysterically. "Help me! Get me outta here! Help me!"

"Don't move!" Severide yelled through the glass. "Stay still! We'll have you out in a minute!"

"Help me!" she screamed again. "Don't let me fall!"

"You're not gonna fall! Just stay still!"

He ran around to the rear to help with the chains.

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Once they had the Honda securely anchored to Truck 81, Kelly ordered his men to put stabilizers up to keep the car from teetering .

He ran back to the driver's side...and where the woman had been thrashing and twisting and screaming just a few minutes before, now she was frozen like a statue. She sat with her hands clenching the wheel at ten and two...like a fifteen year old having their first driving lesson.

Huge tears rolled down her face as Severide yelled through the glass again.

"Okay! Open the door!" he said. "And I'll getcha out!"

But the woman just sat there.

"Open the door!" Severide called out again. "C'mon...nothin's gonna happen!"

There were other people who needed help...he couldn't stand around all day.

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He ran back the Squad and grabbed a Halligan...and he popped the door of the Honda.

"C'mon..." he said to the woman, as he pressed the button to release her seatbelt. "C'mon...let's get you outta here."

The woman tumbled out the door into Severide's arms, almost knocking him backwards. He set her sort of on her feet, but he still had to practically drag her over to Ambulance 61.

"Whaddya got?" Dawson asked.

"She's in shock..." Severide answered as he passed the victim off to the two paramedics.

Make that..._tried_ to pass the victim off. The woman had a death grip on his bunker jacket.

"No! No! No!" she screamed as Shay and Dawson tried to pry her fingers loose. "Stop!"

"We need to check you out..." Dawson told her. "Make sure you're not hurt..."

"Stop! Stop!" the woman screamed. "Please! Don't!"

She made a last desperate grab for the strap on the radio Kelly wore slung across his chest...but Shay was too fast for her.

When Leslie grabbed the victims hand, Kelly pulled free and headed back to the scene...where he was needed.

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The paramedics backed the victim toward the open back of the ambo.

"What's your name?" Leslie asked gently.

But the woman had her eyes fixed on the man who had just saved her from a certain death.

"Ma'am!" Dawson said loudly. "What's your name?"

The woman blinked...almost uncomprehendingly.

"What's your name, Honey?" Shay asked again.

"Dorrie..." the woman finally answered, almost as if she was in a trance.

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The two paramedics looked at one another. Something wasn't quite right with this one.

"Do you hurt anywhere?" Dawson asked.

"No..." Dorrie answered .

She kept her eyes honed on the man who rescued her.

Lieutenant Severide...that's what it said across the back of his jacket. Lieutenant Severide.

"Where's he going?" Dorrie asked.

Shay and Dawson both followed her line of sight.

Oh...brother...

"He's goin' to do his job." Shay said. "He's got work to do.

Severide was trying to get to the victims pinned inside the Smart car. The thing was wrapped around them so tight that he was having to tear it apart piece by piece. Hopefully...he wouldn't be too late.

Kelly was totally focused on the job at hand...totally oblivious that he had an audience. An audience of one who was watching every move he made.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Kelly was exhausted when he got home the next morning.

His first day back from vacation had been fairly uneventful...there was the call out to the Wilson Street exit...another car accident...a kid stuck behind a bookcase. Nothing too out of the ordinary.

Until they got back from the bookcase run.

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There was a woman waiting in front of Station 51.

"Hey, Lieutenant..." Mills said. "Isn't that the lady you pulled out of the car this morning?"

Kelly squinted into the sun...and he saw that, yes...the woman that had swung between hysteria to catatonia and back to hysteria again was standing in front of the firehouse.

Whaddya suppose she wanted?

Severide pursed his lips together as he jumped down from the Squad and shrugged off his gear. It was ninety frickin' degrees out...and he'd just had to pry a bookcase off the wall and move it enough to get to a skinny five year old who thought that would be the perfect place to hide for hide and seek. He was sweating and all he wanted was to hit the shower...not taking a social call.

But he squared his shoulders and walked toward the woman. When he stopped in front of her she dropped her eyes...and looked up at him like a nervous schoolgirl.

"Can I help you?" he asked politely.

The woman giggled...like a nervous schoolgirl.

"Hi." she squeaked.

Oh...God...

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"Can I help you?" he asked again.

The woman cleared her throat...and answered in a shaking voice.

"I just...I just...I just...wanted...to...thank you." she stammered. "For saving my life."

Kelly gave her a little smile.

This happened every once in a while. The people they rescued came around to thank them.

"It's my pleasure..." he said, giving her the standard answer. "That's my job."

The woman giggled again.

"What's your name?" Severide asked.

"Dorrie..."she answered. "Dorrie Weinhart..."

"My name's Severide..."

Dorrie looked up again through downcast eyes.

"I know...it said on the back of your coat." she told him in a shaky voice.

"You can call me Kelly..." he said, instantly regretting the words the moment they came out of his mouth.

Dorrie was giggling like a twelve year old.

Please, God...don't let either of his girls turn into that...

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"I just really wanted to thank you..." Dorrie said. "I want to do something nice for you..."

"That's not necessary." Severide said quickly. "I told you...it's all part of my job."

"But...but maybe I can cook you dinner...or something...or..." Dorrie went on.

"We're not allowed to accept gifts." Kelly told her. "It's against union by-laws."

That may not be one hundred percent accurate...sometimes people sent cookies or candy or stuff...but there was something off with this woman/child. She looked like she was thirty-five...but she acted like she was a pre-teen.

The sooner he could send her on her way, the better.

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"But...but..."

Kelly softened his voice...like he was talking to a child.

"Look, Dorrie..." he said. "I'm really flattered...but all this...it's not necessary. Like I said, it's all part of my job. So...I appreciate you stopping by like this...but I've a lot of work I need to do."

He raised his eyebrows, hoping she'd take the hint.

She looked up at him...tears swimming in her eyes.

Oh...shit...he thought. What now?

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Over by the Squad, Clarke could see the Lieutenant was having a rough time. So he whistled loudly.

"Hey! Lieutenant!" Clarke called out. "Can you help me with this please?"

Severide breathed a sigh of relief.

"Excuse me." he said to Dorrie. "I need to go."

And he turned around and jogged back to the open door of the firehouse.

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Dorrie watched him go...a single tear running down her cheek.

Was that really a rule? About no favors? Or did the handsome Lieutenant just not like her?

No...no, he must like her. He told her to call him 'Kelly'...and he saved her life! He _must _like her!

She raised her hand and gave a shy little wave...just opening and closing it a little bit. She'd do something nice for Kelly...maybe not something so obvious...something more subtle. Then he'd have to reciprocate...maybe he'd take her to a movie...or out to dinner...or out for _drinks_!

She turned around and walked down the block to the bus stop...looking over her shoulder one last time...memorizing every detail about _Kelly_.

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Kelly slapped Clarke on the shoulder.

"Thanks for the assist." he said. "I didn't think I was gonna get rid of her."

"She looks like she's not exactly playin' with a full deck." Clarke observed. "What'd she want?"

"To cook me dinner." Severide replied.

Clarke gave a snort.

"I'd like to be there when you tell that to Alyssa." he said. "Sorry, Honey...I won't be home for dinner...I got a hot date tonight!"

"Bite me...and here I was...gonna offer to buy you a beer after shift for helpin' me out."

Clarke was immediately contrite.

"Okay...I'm sorry..."

Now it was Severide's turn to laugh.

"No...no, no, no...you blew it, Buddy." he said. "But don't worry...I'll let you make it up to me."

So the two men went to work, checking the equipment...all the little chores they did after a run...bantering back and forth all the while.

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Kelly dropped his bag beside the back door and headed for the kitchen. He could smell fresh coffee and he didn't hear any noise. This must be one of those rare mornings when all four kids slept in past seven.

But Alyssa was up...and that's all that mattered.

"Hey..." he said as he stepped into the room.

His wife came around the table and stepped into his waiting arms...and he pulled her close and tangled his fingers in her long, still damp hair.

It was so good to be home.

"Hey..." Lyssa whispered as she slid her arms around his waist and laid her head on his chest.

She loved to listen to his heart beating...strong and steady...just like him.

"You okay, Honey?" she asked.

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Kelly knew she worried constantly when he was on shift. She'd gotten way too many calls over the years. Calls telling her he was hurt and to run down to the hospital. The last time was just this past January...when a ceiling had collapsed. Kelly had injured his ankle...and Capp lost his life.

They were still dealing with the emotional fall-out from that horrible accident. Nothing was the same. Capp had served at Station 51 for years...and there was a void that would never be filled. The new guy, Newhouse...was good. He was an expert diver...and he had good instincts. He was fast on his feet...and he could get out of a tight spot. But a Squad was a tight team...and you had to be able to anticipate one another's moves...read the tone of the other's voice. It was hard to get the right mix. New Guy was doin' okay...but it wasn't quite there yet.

And there was a lot of other stuff too...all inextricably tied together. A lot of hard feelings.

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"Kelly? Are you okay?" Alyssa asked again.

He placed a soft, sweet kiss against her hair.

"Yeah..." he said. "It was just a long shift."

She gently led him over to the table and pulled out his chair. Kelly sat down and wiped his face with his hands while Alyssa poured the coffee. She set a big, steaming mug down on the table and sat down beside him.

"Tell me..." she said.

And he did...the two kids who decided to go swimming in a retention pond...the car fire in a vacant lot...the kid trapped behind the bookcase. And he told her about the call over on Wilson and the Honda teetering on the rail.

He told her about the victim showing up at the firehouse...and offering to make him dinner.

Alyssa just shook her head.

"I think Jeff was right." she said...referring to Clarke's comment about the girl not playing with a full deck. "She sounds a little 'off'."

That about summed it up.

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"How 'bout you?" he asked. "You stay outta trouble?"

She just groaned and rolled her eyes.

"How much trouble can you get into with a pile of laundry the size of Mt. Everest?" she asked. "And chasing four kids in four different directions?"

Kelly chuckled. There was always plenty to do at the Severide house...and laundry was a never ending battle.

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"But I did manage to go and see Veronica for an hour or so." Alyssa said softly.

Veronica was a sad story...and part of that 'inextricably tied together' stuff. About the time Alyssa had befriended her...Trey Wilson came on as a Candidate on Truck. It had started out great...at the firehouse at least. The guy looked like he really had the chops to make a good...even a great firefighter.

But it all hit the fan when it came to light that their Candidate had been using his girlfriend as a human punching bag for three years. And that girlfriend turned out to be Veronica.

The guys had tried to handle it 'in-house'...to try and protect the Candidate's career...but it was no use. After the accident where Severide was injured...and Capp was killed, things went from bad to worse. Trey had nearly beat Veronica to death, then left her locked in the bathroom of their apartment. God knew how she did it...hurt as bad as she was...but the girl managed to break a window and crawl three stories down a fire escape. Then she walked ten blocks to Alyssa and Kelly's house.

Now she was in the hospital...in the psychiatric ward...fighting the depression and trying to undo all the damage that had been done psychologically from having spent over three years living in hell. And the once promising Candidate had traded turn-outs for a prison jumpsuit at the County Jail.

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"How's she doing?" Kelly asked, before he took a sip of his coffee.

Lyssa shrugged.

"Her family got her into a private facility...somewhere out around Itasca. They're taking her there on Monday."

"That's pretty far out there..."

At least an hour from the city...maybe more.

Lyssa shrugged again.

"She showed me the brochure...and I looked the place up on line. It seems nice. She's still got a long way to go." Alyssa said with a sigh. "But her dad bought her a tablet...and a keyboard. She started writing again."

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Veronica had always wanted to be a writer...that's what she told Alyssa when she had stayed at their house for almost three months after she got away from Trey. The first time anyway...before she went back. But Trey had to control every part of her...and he may have got rid of her computer and her hundreds of books. But he couldn't stop her mind from working...so for three years...whenever she could get some money out of him she went and bought pencils and notebooks. She filled over a hundred with stories written out long hand...escaping into a fantasy world where strong, brave, honorable men rescued lovely maidens from evil, treacherous villains.

But it all came crashing down when he had found the notebooks. He was furious...that she had been keeping this from him...that she had been thinking about another man...when she should have been thinking only of him, and how lucky she was that he was willing to have her.

Trey began to tear the pages...and Veronica fought. She fought for what was hers...and she ended up fighting for her life.

When the detectives had come to talk to her in the hospital...after they had been to her apartment to collect any evidence they could use...the first thing she had asked was if her stories were okay. But Trey had torn the books to shreds...and Veronica had become hysterical. She railed and trashed in her bed and the doctor was afraid she'd pull out the IV's giving her fluids and nourishment. They'd had to sedate her.

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Kelly nodded again and took another sip of his coffee.

It was good that Veronica was going to get the help she needed.

But it was still a bitter pill to swallow that Trey had done this...and that he and the rest of the guys had actually been taken in by all his lies.

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Then he heard a noise coming from upstairs. He heard a gentle 'thud'...followed by 'bump, bump, bump' coming down the stairs...and finally, little feet 'slap, slap, slapping' on the hardwood floor.

"Daddy!" Lexi cried from the kitchen door.

The little girl ran to him and Kelly felt her crash into his legs, then try to climb up into his lap.

He reached down to pick his baby up while Alyssa moved his coffee mug out of the way.

Kelly sat Lexi on the table in front of him.

"I get out all by my-sef!" she proclaimed happily.

Uh-oh.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

"Now what're we gonna do?" Kelly asked Alyssa.

Lexi had figured out how to climb out of her crib...they had never had that problem before.

The twins went into real beds when they were just two...and Maggie had never tried to climb out of the crib. She was too little. It was too far down to the ground.

Alyssa just smiled.

"Why don't you talk to Matt..." she suggested. "A little birdie told me he's plotting one of his usual 'over the top' presents for her birthday."

Kelly gave her a look.

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"And which 'little birdie' would that be?"

He didn't like when people kept secrets from him.

"Apparently my mom's become real popular down at the firehouse..." Alyssa replied cryptically.

Kelly reached out and grabbed his wife in a fierce bear hug.

"Tell me..." he said.

"And what'll you give me if I do?" she teased.

He laughed.

"No, no, no, no...that's not how this works..."

"Oh really, Severide?" she said, licking her lips playfully.

"That's not fair..." he said.

"All's fair in love and war...remember?"

"And which is this?" he asked.

"You decide..." she whispered.

"Mmmm..." Kelly growled as he leaned down to kiss her.

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Dorrie paced back and forth in her tiny studio apartment.

She had taken the bus back to Station 51 again...and watched from across the street. But Kelly wasn't there...so she went home again and Googled 'Chicago Fire Department'. That's when she learned that they worked twenty-four hour shifts, and then had two days off. So that meant if Kelly worked yesterday...Monday...then he wouldn't be back till Thursday.

That was good. It gave her time to plan what she was going to do next.

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He said he couldn't take any special favors...but if she included everyone...then it wouldn't be a special favor. It would just show him that she was a nice, kind, thoughtful person.

So what could she do? She wasn't really much of a cook...even though she had offered to cook dinner for Kelly. She couldn't do anything fancy, but she could make sandwiches and mac and cheese and stuff like that. But she didn't think she could make dinner for all the people at the firehouse. That would be a lot of work, and it would probably be real expensive.

She could bake a cake...that part was easy. It just came out of a box and you put eggs and water. But how could she decorate it? She wasn't talented or creative...and she was a terrible speller.

Cookies! That was perfect! She could get the kind in the package that you cut and put on the cookie sheet and baked 'em. That wouldn't be too hard! She could do that! Everybody liked cookies and all the men would probably be real happy. They'd all say thank you...and maybe some of them might ask her on dates. But she'd secretly tell Kelly that this was all for him...and he'd be so grateful. Then he would prob'ly ask her out...and of course she would say 'yes'!

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Dorrie smiled at the thought...until she turned around and caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror that hung on the bathroom door.

Oh...she couldn't go out on a date looking like this! Her hair was too long and it didn't lay nice. Besides, it was a dirty looking brown. It wasn't pretty at all.

And her clothes! What had she been thinking...going down to the firehouse in a faded old t-shirt and her old gym shorts that were too tight on her?!

She had to fix herself up if she was gonna go out with a man like Kelly. He was so gorgeous he could be a model! She had to look a lot better than this!

Dorrie went across the room and the coffee can off the shelf. That where she kept her extra money...whatever was left over at the end of the month. She dumped it carefully onto the table and started to count.

She got messed up a couple of times and had to start again...one hundred twenty-one...one hundred twenty -two...one hundred twenty-three dollars and twenty-five...fifty...fifty-five...fifty-six...fifty-seven! One hundred twenty-three dollars and fifty-seven cents!

That was a lot of money! She could do a lot with that!

She went to get a sandwich bag out of the drawer and carefully folded the dollars inside...then added the coins. She put the whole bag into her purse and took her house keys from the hook by the door.

As she headed toward the bus stop, Dorrie wondered what she should do first. She decided to get her hair cut first...then go to the Dollar Store and get some hair dye and make-up...and go to Dots for some new clothes. It was all so exciting...and she had to remind herself to walk, not run or skip. But she couldn't help but smile. When she was done, Kelly wouldn't even recognize her!

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"Since when did you and my mother-in-law get to be all buddy-buddy?" Severide growled at Casey as they walked out of roll call.

"Excuse me?" Casey asked, clearly caught off guard.

"One thing you need to know about Nadine..."Kelly told him..."the woman can't keep a secret to save her life."

Matt still looked confused.

"So, what're you cookin' up for Lexi's birthday?"

"I thought you just said Nadine told you..." Casey said.

"No...she told Alyssa..." Kelly clarified. "And unfortunately, my wife_ can_ keep a secret."

"And what makes you think I'm gonna tell you?" Matt asked, folding his arms across his chest.

Kelly looked his buddy in the eye.

"Because Lexi figured out how to get outta her crib and you don't want her to fall and break something." he said. "'Cause you know I'll call you in the middle of the night if that happens."

Matt had to laugh...but he knew Severide wasn't kidding.

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"I was about to go buy her a bed..." Kelly continued. "But Lyssa told me talk to you first...so spill it."

Casey took a deep breath.

"Well...about six months ago I had this job out in Bolingbrook...and this family had a little boy about Lexi's age. So I went to give 'em an estimate on some windows...and the dad's trying to put together this toddler bed...and the guy doesn't know one end of a screwdriver from the other."

Kelly mad a motion with his hand...he didn't need the whole thing chapter, line and verse. Just the punch line.

"So I offered to do it for him..." Casey went on. "And the guy was totally grateful."

He pulled out his phone and started looking through his pictures...trying to find the right one.

"The bed was a fire truck." he said. "It was real cute...and I don't know why I didn't think about it before when Andy and Jesse were that little...but the guy let me take some measurements and gave me the instruction sheet for assembling it. And I made one for Lexi...in pink...of course.

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He held out his phone so Kelly could see the finished product.

"Of course..." he quipped.

A pink fire truck bed...just what every little girl needed.

But he still didn't see how his mother-in-law fit into the picture...and he told Casey that.

"Well, you _can't_ have a pink fire truck bed with a Cinderella quilt..." Casey said...like the answer should have been obvious.

Severide rolled his eyes heavenward.

When they moved Lexi in with Maggie around her first birthday, Alyssa had sent away for a new crib set to compliment Maggie's pink quilt with the tiara and the word 'princess' stitched right smack in the middle. So now Lexi had a baby quilt with a pink carriage rolling up to a purple castle and the words 'Once Upon a Time' across the top.

"What was I even thinking?" Kelly said with biting sarcasm. "So...my mother-in-law?"

"She's making a new quilt and pillows." Casey said.

Ah. Nadine and her sewing machine. That explained it.

"So is this masterpiece finished?" Severide asked. "Any chance we can put it in before her birthday?"

"Yeah...the bed's ready to roll." Casey replied.

Good...they could put it together tomorrow after shift. And hopefully ward off any disasters.

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Dorrie hauled her purchases up the steps.

It was a pain having to take the bus...but after the accident, her brother said she couldn't have a car anymore...that she panicked when she saw the crash in front of her and that's how she ended up hanging on the rail. It wasn't her fault...but he decided that was the way it had to be. And he was the boss of her.

So it was back to taking the bus.

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She set her bags on the table and started laying everything out. A new outfit...cute, stylish...a shirt with flowers on it...and a pair of Capri pants. The lady at the store said it was a perfect casual summer outfit. At the Dollar Store she found some clip on earrings and a necklace...and she bought make-up and a new pair of flip flops.

At Great Clips she had her hair cut...and then on a whim she had it dyed blonde. Not a trashy blonde...but a nice, pretty shade of honey blonde.

She counted the money she had left...she still had thirty dollars. That was plenty to get the cookie supplies.

Everything was going perfectly!

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"So...how was it?" Matt asked as they headed into the common room for lunch.

He'd been waiting all day to find out how Lexi had liked sleeping in her pink fire truck bed. But since they came on at seven that morning there had been three calls. Every time he started to approach his fellow lieutenant, the bells went off.

"What?" Severide said, distracted.

He was looking at a text from Lyssa. For the first time in almost two years, Lexi had gone to take a morning nap.

"Whaddya mean, 'what'? Whaddya think?" Casey said. "How'd Lexi like her bed?"

Severide grinned.

"She loves it...she's looking for any excuse to go up there. Nap time...bed time..."

Casey grinned with satisfaction.

"The only problem is she wants to play...not sleep." Kelly told him.

Casey reached for the door.

"Well, you can't expect me to think on everything..." he said.

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The two Lieutenants stopped as they saw the men all standing at the window.

Wondering what was going on, they joined the crowd.

"What the hell is that?" Cruz asked.

They were watching a woman, a full figured woman...wearing a brightly colored flowered t-shirt...the loud oranges and yellows and pinks screamed out that she was coming...and she paired them with hot pink stretch pants.

Her hair was an odd shade of blonde...brassy and a little orange.

She turned in the driveway of the firehouse.

"That's the girl from the Wilson Street accident." Dawson said. "Dorrie..."

"That's some get-up..." Shay said.

"She looks like 'Mimi' from 'The Drew Carey Show'. " Otis added.

And as usual, Hermann summed it all up in one phrase.

"I never saw a hooker at the circus before..."

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Severide squinted...and sure enough they were right. It was the woman he pulled out of the Honda. The one who'd come by after the call wanting to cook him dinner to thank him.

The one who acted like an awkward pre-teen.

"Whaddya think she wants now?" Mills wondered.

"Who knows?" Cruz said.

Dorrie was carrying a plate or something covered in foil.

"You want me to go?" Casey asked Kelly.

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Before Severide could answer...

"I got this one." Chief Boden said.

He'd come from his office looking for chow...and he saw the team taking in the spectacle.

Kelly breathed a sigh of relief.

He knew there was something wrong with Dorrie. Maybe she was a little slow...maybe she wasn't playing with a full deck, as Clarke had suggested. It was kind of sad in a way...and he did feel sorry for her, but she didn't seem to get it... that she couldn't keep coming 'round the firehouse. And he didn't want to be flat out rude to her and tell her to go away.

Hopefully Chief would get through to her.

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Boden stepped through the door and met Dorrie on the drive.

"Can I help you with something, Miss?" he asked.

Dorrie wasn't expecting this man...he was tall...taller than Kelly...and he had a deep voice that rumbled like thunder.

"I wanna see Kelly..." Dorrie said. "I mean...Lieutenant Severide."

"He's tied up at the moment..." Chief told her. "I can give him a message."

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This wasn't the way it was supposed to happen! Kelly was supposed to come out...see that she'd baked cookies to share with the whole fire department...and tell her that she was too nice...too sweet. He was supposed to say "let me make it up to you", and ask her to go out!

"Is there a message?" Boden asked again.

"No...I mean...I wanna talk to Kelly. Just for a little while. I brought him some cookies." Dorrie blurted out.

"We're not allowed to accept gifts, Miss." the Chief said. "It's very nice of you...but the department has rules."

"But...but I...I just..."she stammered.

This wasn't going right at all...and Dorrie was getting angry.

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"I need to talk to Kelly...right now!" she said. "Please?"

But the Chief shook his head.

"I'm sorry, Miss...but the Lieutenant is busy right now. This is a place of business."

The frustration over whelmed Dorrie.

How was Kelly supposed to know what a nice and thoughtful person she was...if she wasn't allowed to see him?

"Now if there's nothing else I can do for you..." Boden said.

Dorrie's eyes flashed as she looked up at him.

He was totally ruining everything...

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She hurled the plate of cookies to the ground and turned around. She ran down the drive and back toward the bus stop.

About halfway down the block, she stopped and turned.

She was going to have to think of something...she was going to need to know more about the firemen and their rules.

Dorrie knew that she loved Kelly. He had saved her life. And he must like her back...right?


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

Once she was out of sight of the firehouse Dorrie began to run again. She just wanted to get home and get back into her comfortable clothes, scrub all the makeup off her face...and

"Hey! Watch where you're goin!"

She looked up at the person she'd just run into.

"What the fuck? You just go plowin' into people and you don't say nothin'?" he growled.

He was tall...well...taller than her, but not as tall as Kelly. He was skinny, with pockmarked cheeks and thick, black eyebrows over equally black eyes...not brown...black.

His hair was black too...jet black...and kind of shaggy, falling forward into his eyes...like he needed a haircut.

Maybe she should tell him about Great Clips.

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"I'm sorry." Dorrie said. "Excuse me."

"That's all you got to say?" he snapped. "You're sorry?"

What else was she supposed to say?

He sighed.

"What're you runnin' from?" he said. "Where's the fire?"

At the mention of the word "fire" Dorrie's eyes filled with tears, the humiliation she'd just gone through washed over her again like the wave that knocked her down in the ocean the one time she'd gone on vacation with her family.

"Whaddya cryin' for?" the guy asked. "Jesus...what are you, some kinda retard?"

"Don't call me that!" Dorrie snapped.

She turned away and tried to pull herself together.

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The guy she'd run into looked around in a panic. The last thing he needed was to be standin' there next to some blubbering girl...one who looked like she was prob'ly off her rocker at that.

"Okay..." he said. "I'm sorry. My name's Jax. What about you?"

Dorrie turned around again.

"Dorrie." she said, in a shaky voice.

Jax gestured to an empty bench at the bus stop.

Cautiously, Dorrie approached it...and tried to sink down slowly. But she ended up landing with a "plop" that made the bench shudder.

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Jax either didn't notice or he pretended not to as he sat down next to her.

"So, why're ya so upset, Dorrie?" he asked.

She looked him over. You shouldn't really talk to strangers... and this guy was definitely strange. It was August and he was dressed head to toe in black. Black t-shirt...black jeans...black leather boots...even a black leather motorcycle jacket.

Did Kelly have a motorcycle jacket? She could see him in one...he'd look so handsome...

"What's wrong?" Jax asked again.

"Nothing..." Dorrie said quietly. "It's just been a rough day."

"Why don't you tell me?" he said. "I got nothin' better to do."

Dorrie wiped her eyes with the back of her hand, smearing cheap mascara across her face like war paint.

"It's just...just...there's this guy..." she started.

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And it was like she couldn't stop herself. The whole story tumbled out like water over a dam. Dorrie didn't know this guy, Jax, from Adam...and yet she told him everything. She told him about the car accident that happened right in front of her and how she slammed on what she thought was the brake and turned out to be the gas. She told him how she held the wheel and jerked it to the right and how her car suddenly went up in the air and got caught just before she thought she was gonna tumble over onto the Eden's. And how she was so scared...her heart was pounding so fast and she couldn't breathe...Dorrie thought she was having a heart attack, she was so scared.

And then Kelly was there.

And she was safe.

Because of Kelly.

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Jax listened to Dorrie's story. It was kind of hard to put it all together...she talked so fast sometimes...and she didn't really even stop for a breath. But one thing was obvious. The girl was definitely not running on all cylinders...she was definitely retarded...or mentally challenged or whatever the politically correct thing to say was.

And she was definitely hung up on this guy...this firefighter.

Kelly.

"Hey..." Jax said as he awkwardly laid his left hand on her shoulder. "Don't cry, okay?"

Dorrie sniffled and snorted, trying to get herself together.

Jax winced at the sounds. Gross. She sounded like a pig.

"Look...if you wanna find out about this guy, Kelly...you can't do it obvious-like. You gotta do a little investigation. Then when you got all the facts an' the details...that's when you move in for the kill."

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Dorrie looked up, shocked at his words.

She could _never_ kill Kelly.

"It's just an expression." Jax said quickly. "You wanna find out about him. What he does when he's not workin', where he goes...where he lives...who his friends are. I can help you."

She blinked in surprise.

This guy understood? But more than understanding...he knew what to do.

And he was willing to help her?

Slowly, Dorrie nodded.

"Okay...thank-you..."

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Saturday the Severide's yard was overflowing yet again.

It seemed like their parties were getting more and more out of control. With the family growing...the kids...well, some of the kids anyway...were bringing boyfriends or girlfriends. Alyssa's older nieces and nephews were getting married and a few had babies of their own.

This was Lexi's third birthday...and she was running all around the yard in her plaid ruffled top and her little denim capris.

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Maggie had had a fit when she saw what Lexi wanted to wear. It was a _party_...and she was the_ birthday_ _girl_! She had to wear a _party dress_!

"Maggie...when it's your birthday party, you can wear what you want." Alyssa had told her with a sigh. "It's your sister's day...let her be comfortable."

Then she vetoed Maggie's choice for her own outfit...a pink tulle party dress and patent leather buckle shoes.

"It's a backyard barbeque." she said. "You'll ruin your pretty dress playing outside!"

She pulled out a summer dress...one with brightly colored flowers...flowered appliqués...and a big bow tied in the back.

Maggie stomped her little foot...not once but twice...and pouted to a point where Kelly had to step in.

"That's enough, Maggie Grace." he said. "You look perfect...and you can run and play with all your cousins. Enough with the back-talk...or you're gonna have to sit in here while everyone else is at the party."

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He left the girls' room, closing the door part way, leaving Maggie to think about what he'd just said.

He could still hear her, sniffling and hiccupping out in the hallway and he walked into his wife's waiting hug.

He was starting to see what she'd been telling him these last few years...that Maggie needed a good dose of reality...and that life wasn't like the fairy tales she loved to read. Parties were not fancy balls with princes and princesses...people rode in cars instead of horse-drawn golden carriages...and they had aunties and uncles for godparents...firefighters and cops...not fairies.

Kelly sighed as Alyssa hugged him tight.

"I know, Honey...she whispered. "I know it's hard..."

He hated to punish Maggie...she was his heart. Her and Lexi both.

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Kelly was a guy's guy. He was strong and rugged...a little rough around the edges. He was the first to admit he wasn't the smartest or the best educated guy in the room. But what he did know, firefighting, he was the best at. He's proved that time and time and time again.

And when it came to his girls...all of them...he was the biggest softie there had ever been.

"I've created a monster..." he groaned dramatically.

"No arguments here, Severide..."

"Hey...you're supposed to be on my side here." Kelly told her as he reached around to pinch her.

Alyssa chuckled softly.

"But I can't deny when you're talking truth, can I, Baby?" she said. "You wouldn't want me to start lying to you after all these years, would you?"

Her eyes twinkled up at him, mischievously.

Kelly growled at her.

"I'll tell you what I want..." he said.

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The door opened behind him.

"Daddy? Can I come out now?" Maggie asked. "I'm ready to be good."

He reluctantly turned from his wife and sighed.

"Yeah...you can come out." he said. "Let's wash your face and blow your nose..."

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Everyone gathered around for the presents...and Kelly sat in his lawn chair beneath the huge tree with Lexi on his lap.

This should be an easy one...since Casey had already brought over the big present weeks ago. Just more toys...and books...and clothes. There had to be at least some in the city of Chicago that his kids didn't already have...right?

And he was right.

There were new Lego sets...and a whole zoo play set with a lion house and a penguin habitat...there was a baseball glove in pink and blue...with Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty on it. There were little dolls with clothes that snapped on and off and a little ice cream maker.

That could turn into a huge mess...

And there was a pink t-ball stand and a pink plastic bat...which Hermann and Vargas got right to work assembling.

Might as well start showing the little girl the basics...right?

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But then Leslie came out of the house with a big box.

"Oh...what's Aunt Leslie got for you, Baby?" Kelly said as his best friend came into the middle of the circle with her present.

He wondered himself...because for the first time in...ever...Shay hadn't been blabbing all over the firehouse what she'd gotten for one of the kids.

Lexi tore into the pink paper to uncover a cardboard box...held loosely together with Scotch tape on the top.

Not for long...one good rip and the box was open and she was pulling out...

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"Daddy! Yook!" Lexi screamed. "I gots my own gear!"

She was pulling out a little bunker jacket...in pink!

"Oh my God..." Alyssa's brother Nicky groaned.

There was laughter all around as Lexi continued to squeal with joy.

Shay held up the jacket so everybody could see the purple sparkly lettering on the back:

Chicago Fire Department...

And at the bottom:

Severide.

"Jeez..." Andy groaned. "Wasn't the pink firehouse bad enough? This is takin' things too far!"

Hermann grabbed the boy from behind in a quick and fierce hug.

"Amen, Brother!" he declared. "Amen to that!"

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Kelly had to agree...especially when Lexi pulled the last thing out of the box.

She was bent almost in half and he had to hang on so his daughter didn't go tumbling over head first as she pulled out the final piece.

"Pink fi-hem-met! I gots my berry own pink fi-hem-met!"

Sure enough...there was a little plastic fire helmet just like the ones Andy and Jesse had always had for Halloween. Except theirs were black, like Kelly's...and this one was cotton candy pink.

And to make matters worse...Shay had apparently bedazzled it with little rhinestones.

"Oh, Sweet Jesus!" Hermann groaned. "That's blasphemy!"

"I could always glue a few rhinestones on your helmet, Hermann." Shay offered generously.

Hermann turned on the paramedic.

"Shay..." he said, pointing his finger at her. "You so much as touch my helmet...and I'll hang ya by your thumbs from the toppa the tower!"

All the firefighters roared with laughter...especially when Lexi turned around in Kelly's lap and plopped the pink fire helmet down on his head.

But only for a split second...he reached up to grab it off...before someone could get a picture.

He loved his little girl...but there was no way in hell he was gonna be caught dead with a rhinestone bedazzled pink fire helmet on.

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"Are you sure we need all this stuff, Jax?" Dorrie asked.

They were in an electronics store...and not a big one like Best Buy.

Jax had taken her to a little store in a car he said he borrowed from one of his friends. There he greeted the clerk...calling him "Pisher" and the guy started showing him cameras.

"Yeah...I told you." Jax said. "If you wanna find out about your target...you gotta do it from a distance so you don't get spotted. You gotta study his patterns...his movements...who he talks to. And to do that...you're gonna need one of these babies."

He held up a digital camera with a telephoto lens that was about a foot long.

"It's got a high speed shutter..." "Pisher" told them. "And you can shoot from a hundred yards away."

Of course you couldn't take pictures like this to Walgreens or Target and have 'em printed. If you were gonna do this right, you needed a computer and a photo printer. And image-enhancing software.

The last thing they bought was a scanner...so they could hear all the calls Station 51 was sent out on. They could go right to the scene and see Kelly in action.

"Pisher" totaled up all the equipment...the extra ink cartridges, the dozen packs of photo paper...the charger for the camera.

"That'll be two thousand, three hundred, seventy-four fifty-three." he said.

That was a lot of money...

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Dorrie turned to Jax again.

"Are you sure?" she asked. "Are you really sure about this?"

Jax was getting annoyed.

"Of course I'm sure." he snapped. "I told you...if you wanna find out everything about your fireman...this is how to do it. This is exactly how we do it in the CIA!"

Dorrie felt foolish. Of course Jax knew what he was talking about...

And even though he said he had all this kind of stuff at his place...he couldn't use government property for a civilian assignment. That would be a waste of tax-payer money...that would be fraud...and they could get in big trouble.

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Kelly set up the little pink tee and carefully placed the white plastic ball on top.

"Okay, Lexi...Daddy'll show you how to hold the bat."

He reached for the pink bat, but Lexi was too quick for him.

"I do it, Daddy!" she said in a determined voice. "I do it my-sef!"

"Let me show you where to put your hands..."

But Lexi had seen Andy and Jesse and Connor and all the other boys do this a ba-zillion times.

"I know." she said, stepping up to the plate.

Out in the "field"...Hermann, Cruz, Casey, Mills...Otis and Vargas...as well as Andy, Jesse, Declan, Connor and Aiden were waiting for her to take a swing.

"Move it in, guys..." Hermann said, taking a couple steps closer.

How far could she hit it, after all.

"Lexi..." Kelly said again, reaching to make a few adjustments in her grip. "Lexi...wait a second."

"No! I can do it!" the little girl said, as she stepped up to the tee.

Kelly wisely took a couple of steps back...just in time to watch Lexi fire one off just like a pro.

She swung the plastic bat level with her tiny shoulders and with all her three year old might...and connected squarely with the hollow, plastic ball...sending it right in Hermann's direction.

It hit him very close to a very delicate location...and he double over anyway...more out of surprise and shock than out of actual pain.

Again...the firefighters could barely contain themselves. Otis and Cruz were doubled over too...laughing their asses off.

"What was that about girls?" Shay asked. "Any other male chauvinist remarks?"

She laughed out loud...as she scooped up her niece and carried her around the bases.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

The first day of school was always hectic...and this time it was particularly so.

For the first time all four kids would be going to school for at least part of the day.

It was kind of bittersweet for Kelly...Andy and Jesse were starting seventh grade. He remembered their first day of kindergarten and how he and Andy had wrestled in the bed upstairs before he had to go to work.

But his girls...

Maggie was starting kindergarten...and Lexi was going to pre-school.

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Unlike the other kids who had only gone three days a week, Kelly and Lyssa decided to send Lexi five mornings. She would only get two years of preschool due to her August birthday...where the twins and Maggie had each had three. It wasn't that their baby needed the academics. Like all the kids, she already knew her letters and her numbers...her colors and her shapes...she could recognize a lot of words already.

No, it wasn't the academic she needed. It was the social factor. On the mornings Maggie had gone to school last year, Lexi had been bored to tears.

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Outside the house, parked down the street, two unlikely partners in crime sat in a parked car.

Dorrie sat in the driver's seat...and Jax sat beside her, camera poised, ready to capture any activity.

"Are you sure this is the right street?" Dorrie asked for the umpteenth time.

Jax sighed...his patience wearing thin.

"Yes...I told you. This is the address from the article."

They had done a Google search on "Kelly Severide"...and come up with a handful of newspaper stories dating back about ten years. Two of the articles gave a location on West Byron Street in the Portage Park neighborhood. One told how Lieutenant Kelly Severide and his father Captain Benny Severide, a retired firefighter, had run into a burning house on Christmas Day to rescue two elderly neighbors trapped inside. Another said three houses burned in one night...three simultaneous fires. One of the houses belonged to Lieutenant Kelly Severide of the CFD, the other two were cops...and one was Severide's brother-in-law.

But the point was they were in the right neighborhood...on the right street...on the right block.

"But those stories were old." Dorrie said. "What if he moved?"

"Will you be quiet already?!" Jax snapped. "I'm tellin' you...this is the right place."

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There was some activity on the driveway of 6134...and Jax grabbed the camera.

Two boys...teenagers from the looks of it...came down the drive in matching school uniforms. They were both tall, slender...and they were obviously twins. But more than that, they looked like Severide.

"See..."Jax said. "I told you we were in the right place."

Dorrie didn't know what to say.

Even after all the articles she and Jax read, she had never pictured Kelly with a family.

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Jax was busy clicking away as the camera recorded every step the boys took down the driveway and up the block as they headed toward Meade where they'd cross over and turn right to walk the remaining three blocks to St. Pasqual's.

Beside him Dorrie was scouring the printed out pages from the old news articles, running her index finger under each word, whispering out loud, making sure she didn't miss something.

"It doesn't say who they are..." she said.

"They don't always put kids names in the paper." Jax said. "It's a privacy thing...you know, there's a lot of people up to no good out there...they might get ideas."

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About half an hour later, there was more activity at the house.

Jax looked up when Dorrie made a sound halfway between a shriek and a sob.

There was Kelly...coming down the drive holding a little girl by the hand. And behind him was a woman...holding another little girl's hand.

The four changed partners at the end of the drive. The brown-haired girl let go of the woman's hand and ran around to grab the red-headed one's. The two little girls started to scamper up the block...and Kelly slung his arm around the woman's shoulders and leaned in to place a kiss on her temple.

Jax quickly raised the camera and started clicking away again.

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Dorrie had tears running down her face.

Who was that woman? And what was Kelly doing kissing her? Did he have a girlfriend? Or was he married? Those two boys looked like him...and maybe the little girl with the brown hair too. This was terrible!

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The family walked toward St. Pasqual's completely unaware that they were being watched.

Maggie and Lexi skipped in front of their parents...their backpacks bouncing up and down with them.

"I can't believe it..." Alyssa said in a low voice. "Where did the time go?"

"I know..." Kelly agreed, just as quietly.

Their babies weren't babies anymore.

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Back at Dorrie's apartment, she paced back and forth wringing her hands while Jax typed furiously on the new laptop they had bought.

"Gimme the credit card..." he said.

Dorrie went to get her purse. She dug out her wallet and went into the secret compartment where she kept her brother's credit card. Scott had given it to her to use for emergencies...and this...well...this was an emergency.

She handed it to Jax who punched the numbers in. Then he hit "enter"...and waited.

"Here we go...Kelly Michael Severide...married to Alyssa Margaret Boun...gi...o...vanni. June twenty-first, two thousand fourteen. Chicago, Illinois."

"No!" Dorrie cried.

It couldn't be true! Kelly couldn't be married! Not when he liked _her_! He had saved _her_...that meant he liked _her_...didn't it?

Jax hit a few more keys...

"And the boys are...Andrew Michael Severide and Jesse Matthew Severide...born on Christmas Eve, two thousand fourteen...Chicago." he went on. "Margaret Grace Severide...March eighteenth, two thousand twenty two...and Alexis Anne Severide...August thirty-first, two thousand twenty four. That's it."

Four kids...Kelly was married...and he had four kids.

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"What're we gonna do now?" Dorrie asked in a trembling voice.

Jax pushed his chair back from the table.

"This is perfect..." he said with a huge smile breaking across his face. "Don't you see?"

See what? What could be perfect about discovering that the love of your life was married to someone else?

"See what?" she wanted to know.

Jax came to her and put his hands on her shoulders.

"It's all a sham." he told her. "He's only pretending."

"But you just said he was married to her!" Dorrie said, confused. "They been married a long time!"

"But he's only_ pretending_ to love her! He's really totally unhappy and he doesn't want to be anywhere near her..."

Jax was practically laughing...like it was the funniest thing in the world.

"What are you talkin' 'bout?" Dorrie asked. "He had his arm around her! He was _kissing_ her! How do you know he's not happy?"

His expression changed...softened.

"Well...it's not _obvious_..." he said...like he was talking to a child. "I can understand why you wouldn't see it. But a highly trained operative...someone who's used to reading other people's body language...someone like me would spot it right away."

He grabbed his black leather jacket from the back of the futon that served as a couch.

"Let me go do some more research." Jax told her. "I have to get into some classified databases...but I'll get it all figured out. Don't worry. I'll let you know what I find."

He patted Dorrie on the shoulder and let himself out the door.

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There was another bit of shuffling once the Severide's got to school. Both Maggie and Lexi wanted Daddy to be the one to take them to their new classrooms so first they walked over to the pre-school.

Maggie waited outside with Alyssa while Kelly took Lexi down the stairs to Room two. Maggie looked nervously at the elementary school across the black-top.

"It's gonna be fine, Sweetie..." Alyssa said gently, as she carefully fluffed a few curls in her daughter's hair. "You got to check everything out yesterday...all the toys...you got to see some of your friends. And Ainsley'll be right down the hall."

"An' Andy an' Jesse're right upstairs..." Maggie added.

That's what Andy had told her last night...when he was bein' nice to her for a change. He knew she was scared 'bout goin' to the big school for all day and so for once he wasn't bein' a big meany.

"That's right...your big brothers'll be close by." Alyssa told her.

She smiled as she remembered her first day of kindergarten. That was back at St. Viator's. She and Jonny DiNardo had held hands as they walked into the big scary building...and she took comfort in having her best friend there beside her. And from knowing her big brothers, Joey and Nicky, were close by. Joey was in the third grade...Nicky in seventh.

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Kelly came out the door of the Early Childhood Center.

One down...one to go.

Lexi had been easy to get settled. Just like she had on the day they brought her for the screening, she ran right in there like she owned the place. He had to catch her to get her to put her backpack in her cubby. Then she ran off again...before he could even tell her to have fun and be good and all the other things parents tell their kids on the first day of school.

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Now it was time for kindergarten.

"Ready to go, Baby Girl?" he asked as he held out his hand.

Maggie reached up to take it. She'd never be too big to hold her Daddy's hand. Besides...even though she already had a bunch of friends in her class...her cousin right down the hall and her brothers upstairs...it was still a scary thing, going to school all day long, eating lunch in the cafeteria, playing at recess with so many bigger kids.

She and Kelly made their way through the hall to the classroom where Father Joe was waiting outside.

"Good Morning, Maggie!" he said cheerfully. "Are you ready for school?"

Maggie nodded.

Father Joe was the associate pastor and the most popular priest in the parish because he was so involved with the school. Every morning he stood outside the main entrance, greeting every child by name...high-fiving some of the older boys...asking some children if they had done their homework or how they had done on a particular assignment or exam.

And on the first morning of kindergarten he stood right outside the class to offer the little ones a little extra encouragement.

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When they walked into the big sunlit room Kelly pointed Maggie to the cubbies lining the west wall. She found hers...then not so daintily shoved her pink Princess backpack inside.

"Why don't you take another look around?" Kelly asked. "Go say hi to some friends..."

While Maggie cautiously circled the room, Kelly joined Alyssa standing over by Maggie's desk.

"She's really nervous." he commented.

"I think she knows this is different." Lyssa told him. "It's a big adjustment...all day, lunch here..."

He put his arm around his wife's shoulders and swallowed hard. His Baby Girl was growing up.

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After Mrs. Ellis, formerly Ms. Corbett, invited all the children to come sit on the rug the parents made their getaway.

Kelly and Alyssa held hands as they walked back to the main entrance next to the office.

"Mr. and Mrs. Severide?"

They tuned to see Sister Therese standing in the office door.

"May I have a word with you?" the nun asked.

Kelly and Lyssa looked at one another curiously. What could the principal want with them on the first day of school?

"Come in...please..." she invited them into her office.

The two took seats in the chairs in front of the desk while Sister closed the door. Then she took her seat, folded her hands, and smiled.

"It's wonderful to see you both again. I hope your family had a good summer."

"We did...thank you." Alyssa replied. "What did you want to see us about?"

"Yeah...not even Andy can get in trouble this fast..." Kelly quipped.

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Alyssa shot him a look...and he gave a tiny, almost imperceivable shrug. Sitting in the principal's office made him nervous.

Sister Therese smiled.

"No...no one's in any trouble." she assured them. "I was talking to Jesse's English teacher this morning. He's new to the school this year. His name is Mr. Morrissey. And Ms. Purcell gave him a copy of the story Jesse wrote last year...the one about the boy who goes back in time and witnesses the Chicago Fire."

Ms. Purcell was the boys' sixth grade teacher...and she had been very impressed by the "project" Jesse had undertaken last winter when Kelly was home on medical furlough.

It just went to show that even though the twins were identical...they were totally different when it came to their interests and hobbies. They shared some interests...football...basketball...video games...but whereas Andy would sit downstairs in the man cave watching four different cartoons at the same time on the multiple screens, Jesse was reading and doing research for a story he had gotten an idea for.

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It was actually a pretty neat story...and it ended up being about fifty or sixty pages long when it was all done. Kelly was amazed that the twelve year old had had the ability to stick through with it and see it to the end. But then he reminded himself it was Jesse...not Andy.

Jesse had written about a boy who got separated from his class on a trip to the Field Museum to see an exhibit about the fire. While he's trying to find his way back, he met a boy named Nathan who was the same age as him...but he was dressed funny. Nathan led the boy, Jesse, through a doorway and suddenly they were on DeKoven Street right behind Mrs. O'Leary's barn. And the date was October 6, 1871...two days before the fabled cow kicked over the lantern.

There was more. Nathan's dad was one of the then one hundred eighty-five firefighters in the city...and Nathan was so proud of his father and what he did. When the fire started, Nathan and Jesse jumped out of bed, threw their clothes and shoes on and joined a bucket brigade. But when the flames grew too fierce and the fire was raging out of control the had to run for their lives along with everyone else.

Jesse wrote about the fire jumping the river, the cupola of the courthouse crashing down and the massive bell ringing. He wrote how the prisoners in the county jail in the basement of the courthouse were set free and how gangs roamed the streets looting the abandoned houses and shops.

When the rain finally came, late on the ninth of October, Jesse and Nathan were in the park with tens to hundreds of thousands of people displaced by the blaze...in shock from having their entire lives go up in smoke. Nathan was terrified that his dad was hurt...or worse...but the dad finally found the boys. And together they huddled in a makeshift tent and finally Jesse fell asleep.

Suddenly...someone was shaking his shoulder...telling him to wake up...that it was time to go. And Jesse opened his eyes to see his twin brother Andy standing there. As the boys left the museum to go and board the bus that would take them back to their school a photo taken during the reconstruction caught his eye. He stepped closer...and leaned in to get a good look...and there he saw Nathan and his dad!

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"The story was really quite remarkable." Sister Therese was saying. "And that Jesse is so young...truly...truly remarkable."

"We're very proud of him." Alyssa told her.

"Mr. Morrissey would like to help Jesse polish it up...make a few minor adjustments...and if you both agree, St. Pasqual's would like to publish it as a book."

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Kelly's eyes opened wide.

His son...publishing a book...before he was even thirteen years old?

"What would the purpose be?" Alyssa asked.

Sister Therese licked her lips delicately and straightened her glasses.

"We'd like to sell it as a school fundraiser." she said. "It would be a wonderful example of what a student can achieve with a good education in a supportive environment."

She went on.

"As I said...the school will pay the full cost of the printing...we'll advertise it here and at Mass...and with your permission, we'd reach out to the papers and the local television stations."

Kelly and Alyssa looked at one another.

"I don't see why not..." Kelly said. "We'll talk about it with Jesse...but I think he'd get a kick out of the whole thing."

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They walked out of the school still a little shell-shocked.

Their son...a published author.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

"Truck 81...Ambulance 61...Squad 3...accident with injuries..."

"That's us! C'mon!" Jax said as he jumped up off the futon that served as a couch in Dorrie's apartment.

They were listening to the scanner...waiting for Station 51 to be called out.

"Will you hurry it up?" Jax muttered disgustedly as Dorrie went through her routine she went through every time she left the apartment.

She was fiddling with the lock. She couldn't concentrate with Jax snapping at her. She hoped she hadn't forgotten anything.

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Jax took the stairs two at a time while Dorrie came down a lot more slowly.

He watched her lumbering down the steps and asked himself again why he'd bothered to get mixed up with a retard like her.

"This wasn't the car you had the other day." Dorrie said.

Jax yanked open the door to a black Volkswagen.

"Get in!" he told her.

She climbed into the passenger seat and reached for the seat belt.

"You were diving a silver car when we went to Kelly's house." she said.

"The company requires me to change cars every day." Jax told her. "That way my targets can't identify me."

"I thought you worked for the CIA...not a company."

"The company _is_ the CIA. We don't want to say it out loud. I'm a _secret_ agent...remember?"

She nodded. There was so much to remember about being a spy.

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The team pulled up in front of an old house.

Kelly looked around as he jumped down off the Squad.

A young guy in his twenties came running around from the back, waving his arms around wildly.

"Back here!" he cried. "Around the back! He's back here!"

The men hurried around the back of the house...and stopped short when they encountered the task at hand.

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"AAAAAHHHHHH!" another young guy screamed. "AAAAAHHHHH! Get me off this thing!"

The paramedics pushed there way through.

"What happened?" Dawson demanded to know.

Severide and prob'ly the rest of the guys were wondering the same thing.

How the hell had this guy ended up there.

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Kelly snapped back to the present.

"Mills! K-12!" he hollered.

The victim was another twenty-something who had somehow managed to impale himself on a rusty metal fence post.

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"We were just doin' stunts!" The guy...the one who'd flagged them down...cried. "We were jumpin' off the roof..."

He pointed to the roof of the two story house...and the men followed his line of sight down to the array of mattresses spread out in the "yard".

"An' Teague here...he shoved Rodney..." the guy went on..."and Rodney fell off..."

And now Rodney had a hollow metal post sticking through his gut.

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Mills came running back with the K-12 and Kelly took it from him. In about two point two seconds he had it fired up.

"Okay...hold him level..." he ordered. "And get him covered up!"

Clarke and Mills positioned themselves under Rodney's shoulders...and Newhouse and Cruz each held on of his legs. It looked like some sort of perverse magician's trick...the one where he "levitates" the woman above the table...only this guy was skewered like a piece of meat on a spit.

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Kelly shed his jacket and Casey pulled his off as well and they threw them over Rodney to protect him from flying sparks and metal shavings. Then he sawed through the pole.

"AAAAAHHHHH!" Rodney screamed.

It sounded awful...the saw blade cutting through the rusted metal. It was enough to set your teeth on edge. But one...two...three...and it was done.

"Kelly, take some off the top." Shay told him.

They would have to lay Rodney on his side on the cot...and the pole was still sticking out of his abdomen by about two feet.

Severide quickly lopped about twelve inches off and the men transferred their victim to the gurney.

"Pack these wounds..." Dawson ordered. "Front and back. We can't have this thing move even a millimeter."

Mills began to secure the wound on Rodney's lower back while Dawson tackled the one in front. Leslie the O2 flowing and started a line in his forearm. She hooked up the saline and handed the back to Clarke who held it level with his shoulder. Then she opened it up and let it run wide open.

"Let's move!" Dawson said.

Shay, at the head of the cart kicked the brake and the two paramedics with an assist from Mills and Clarke ran between the houses out to the street where Ambulance 61 was waiting.

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Kelly set the K-12 down carefully and started to gather up the pieces of the pole he'd cut, shooting a look of disgust at the rest of Rodney's idiot group of friends.

What the hell was wrong with people? How could anyone with even _half_ a brain think that jumping off a second story roof onto a little pile of mattresses could possibly end well?

None of the men still on the scene even noticed the black Volkswagen parked in the alley.

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Jax must have run a dozen red lights on his way to the call. Then he circled the block, and drove down the alley behind the houses.

He stopped about two houses away from the accident, grabbed the camera, and got out of the car.

Dorrie followed him...and she could hear a man screaming as soon as they stopped the car. Whatever was going on...someone was hurt bad.

She hoped Kelly would be okay.

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Jax crept behind some trash cans, moving closer and closer to the sound. Then suddenly he stopped, and Dorrie crashed into him.

"Will you stop it?" he hissed angrily. "You're gonna blow the entire op!"

Dorrie froze...like a statue. She was good at that game in school.

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Jax balanced the lens on the top of the fence and started snapping pictures.

This was great! The stupid idiot had impaled himself! There was blood everywhere...and a couple of his buddies were pukin' their guts out!

Jax's breath was coming hard and fast as he snapped photo after photo...while Dorrie had stopped playing Statue and now was wringing her hands nervously as she heard Kelly shouting orders to the other firefighters. She raised up on her toes as she saw him grab a huge...dangerous looking saw. She didn't know what he was going to do with it...and she let out a squeak as she say him raise it level with his hips and cut right through the metal pole that that poor boy was stuck on!

She caught her breath for a second when they laid the boy on his side...and then Kelly came around and raised the saw again. This time he cut a piece off the front...and then he shut it off.

She cringed as she heard the piece of metal fall to the ground with a loud "clunk".

It was over...and Kelly was okay.

He was such a hero! And the way he took charge of the situation...it just made him all that much more amazing! Dorrie felt her breath fill up her chest and her heart was pounding with excitement at seeing Kelly work to save the boy on the pole.

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Jax zoomed in as tight as he could on the wound on the victim's stomach. The paramedic in charge was packing bandages all around it and the blood was seeping through the dressing. He wondered if the guy had got the liver or the spleen or some other bloody organ. Or maybe the guy ran through his intestines...and he had shit pouring out into his belly.

He licked his lips and continued snapping away.

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After Ambulance 61 had raced away from the scene Kelly stowed the K-12 back securely in its compartment on the squad...and reached into another compartment to grab a bottle of water. It was over ninety degrees and he was dripping in sweat.

He slammed the compartment shut and went to jump back up in the air-conditioned cab when out of the corner of his eye he spotted a black Volkswagen slowing down to gape.

He shook his head in disgust again.

Vultures...

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Jax was downloading the pictures onto the laptop when Dorrie brought a glass of pop over to the table. She set it down beside where he was working...and Jax reaching into the inside pocket of his leather jacket and grabbed a silver colored flask. He poured some whiskey into the glass...capped the flask...and then he grabbed his drink and took a long swallow.

"Jax?" Dorrie asked. "You said you found some stuff out...on the secret government computer. Remember? Before we went to the accident?"

Jax looked up from the pictures.

"Huh?" he said.

He had barely been paying attention, he was so engrossed in what he was doing.

"Did you find out about Kelly from the secret files?"

"Oh...uh...yeah." he answered, reluctantly closing the laptop. "It's exactly like I thought. He doesn't love that woman...he was forced to marry her."

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Dorrie gasped.

Poor Kelly!

"Why?" she whispered.

Jax took another swallow of whiskey laced soda.

"A long time ago...he had a gambling problem...and he was into the Mafia for like...half a million."

"Oh my God! That's bad!"

Jax nodded.

"And...uh...Alyssa...her father's real high up in the mob. He's like...the number two man. So he gave Kelly a choice...either marry his daughter...or swim with the fishes."

"What does that mean? Dorrie asked.

"It means they put your feet in cement blocks and throw ya in the river..."

"You mean they kill you? How can you swim with cement on your feet?"

"You can't." Jax told her. "You sink right to the bottom...and you're never heard from again."

That was terrible! But it was wonderful all at the same time! Kelly didn't love Alyssa...but he had to marry her or her father would have killed him. That meant he must like _her_... Dorrie thought.

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"So what do we do now?" she wanted to know. "How do we help him?"

"We gotta find out all about her...her family...they've got their hands in every crooked deal in the city."

He looked around...even though they were the only two in the apartment.

"I shouldn't be sayin' this...cause it's highly classified...but the CIA's been looking to take down this crime family for twenty years. We may have just found a way in!"


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

"Lyssa!" Kelly called out as he came through the four seasons room. "You ready?"

He'd just come from dropping Maggie and Lexi off at school...and now he and Alyssa had to get a move on.

They were driving out to Itasca to see Veronica at the private treatment facility her parents had found. And it was at least an hour's drive.

It had been almost two months since she'd transferred there, and before that she'd spent almost six weeks at Lake Shore. Healing was a slow process...and the emotional recovery was even more gut wrenching than the physical.

Kelly had been a firefighter for over twenty-six years...and he was pretty sure he'd seen the best and the worst of humanity. But nothing could compare to finding out one of his fellow firefighters...a guy he actually had had some respect for...had been terrorizing and brutalizing a woman for over three years. He hadn't wanted to believe it...even though it was Alyssa who told him. He was so sure someone he knew would never do such a thing, that he hadn't spoken to his wife for nearly three whole days.

The brutality one human being could inflict on another was something that unfortunately he had some firsthand experience with. Even after almost fifteen years, he was reminded every day. Alyssa still suffered the residual effects from a beating that had nearly cost her her life...and especially since she'd had to have surgery to break up scar tissue in her right shoulder...Kelly was constantly watching to make sure she didn't push herself too far...didn't overdo things...that she kept up with her exercise program to maintain her mobility and that she got regular treatments at the chiropractor and massages.

But thankfully Alyssa had never suffered the same kind of emotional trauma Veronica did...at least not anywhere close to the same degree. Where Alyssa had been attacked by a man she'd only gone out with a half a dozen times, Trey had spent years breaking Veronica down...convincing her that she was stupid and ugly and had nothing to offer. That she should be grateful he was willing to tolerate her despite all these obvious flaws. He had her believing that she was worthless and useless and unworthy of loving.

Just thinking about it left a bad taste in Severide's mouth...and he was sure every other man at the firehouse felt the same way. He dearly hoped Trey was suffering in his prison cell the way Veronica had in the apartment they had shared.

"Alyssa!" he called out again, as he walked through the kitchen to the dining room.

He stopped as his wife came down the stairs...and he had to catch his breath, she was so beautiful.

Alyssa wore a cream and black lace baby-doll top over a black knit cami and black skinny jeans. And as she stepped off the bottom step she came to him and draped her arms around his neck.

"You don't have to yell..." she told him with a gleam in her eye.

Kelly swallowed hard.

"That's mean..." he said. "To expect me to ride all the way out to the middle a' nowhere with you and keep my hands to myself..."

"Who said anything about hands to yourself?" she said with a smile.

Then she popped up onto her tip toes...even though she wore wedge sandals...and gave him a little kiss on the lips. As she sashayed toward the kitchen to grab her purse she called over her shoulder.

"C'mon Severide...you're the one who said we had to get going..."

"So mean..." he muttered under his breath.

It was a long...long...long...ride. Over an hour...and Kelly made a quip about having to have their passports validated to get back to the city.

Alyssa smiled and reached for his hand.

Finally they arrived at the gate of Alexian Manor and drove along the winding road that led to the main house.

"Pretty fancy..." Kelly observed as he parked the car in the visitor's lot.

This was the first time they'd seen the place. Alyssa had seen the on-line brochure...but Kelly hadn't. He just took her word that it seemed like a nice place.

They got out of the car and started toward the main building.

"You okay, Honey?" Lyssa asked.

"My ankle's a little stiff from the drive." Kelly replied.

The ankle injury from last winter had long since healed...but sometimes, it he didn't move it for a while...like when he drove for an hour or so, it stiffened up.

Alyssa stepped closer to his side.

"Do you need help?"

Kelly draped his arm around her shoulder. He knew she was worried. She always worried about him...and sometimes with good reason. His job was dangerous, that went without saying...and there had been several close calls over the years. Too close for comfort.

Case in point, the ankle injury. If he had been a couple feet ahead of where he had been when the ceiling collapsed, he might have been paralyzed...or worse. Capp, his friend for twenty plus years, his teammate on Squad...Capp had died, while Kelly got off with a bruised ankle.

Now he looked down into his wife's brown eyes...

"I don't _need_ help..." he said. "But any excuse to be this close to you...I don't have any problem with that."

Veronica was waiting for them at a table in the corner of the atrium.

It was a beautiful room...three walls of floor to ceiling windows and a glass domed roof. There was a waterfall along the back wall and huge terrariums filled with plants and flowers. There were deep, comfortable couches and chairs as well as tables to sit and read or write or draw...paint...whatever your particular medium might be.

This was the first time Kelly had seen Veronica in about two...maybe two and a half months...and he was surprised at the change in her. She was dressed simply in jeans and a short-sleeved button down shirt, but unlike the shapeless clothes she had worn when she was with Trey...this one was definitely made for a woman. Her hair had grown out from when he hacked it up with a butcher knife and now it framed her face in an almost shoulder length layered style.

Her face had filled out...it wasn't so sunken and drawn and she'd put on weight.

It had been sickening to find out that Trey had just about starved her.

She wore just a touch of make-up...some lip gloss and mascara...and she must have dusted a light blush across her cheeks.

As Kelly and Alyssa approached her, Veronica stood up and came around the table to hug them.

"It's so good to see you..." she said to Alyssa.

"You look like a different person..." Lyssa gushed.

Veronica hugged Kelly.

"How's it goin'?" he asked.

The three took seats.

"It's good..." Veronica answered. "How're the kids? Does Maggie like kindergarten? How 'bout Lexi? Is she liking pre-school? What about Andy and Jesse? Are they playin' football?"

Kelly began to laugh.

"Slow down..." he chuckled. "One thing at a time..."

She smiled. She had been looking forward to this visit for days. She missed the children so much. It had been months since she'd seen them.

"Everything's goin' really good." Lyssa said. "Busy...everybody's always goin' in different directions."

"The twins played their first game last Saturday..." Kelly added.

"Did they win?" Veronica asked.

She had gone to some of their games when she lived with Kelly and Alyssa.

Was it really just a year ago?

Kelly just smiled.

"Whaddya think?"

Andy and Jesse together were an unstoppable combination. He didn't know if it was a twin thing or what...but no matter what sport they played...they always seemed to find each other and make things happen.

And their dad couldn't hide his pride.

Veronica smiled with a bit of pride of her own.

"And the girls?" she asked eagerly. "How about Maggie and Lexi?"

Alyssa reached for her phone and cued up a picture. Then she handed it across the table.

"Oh my God! They are so precious!" Veronica gushed as she scrolled through the pictures of the little girls on the first day of school in their matching uniforms and their Princess backpacks.

"Maggie loves her new class." Lyssa told her.

"Yeah...and she's a real social butterfly." Kelly added. "Everything is "Mandy this..." and "Kayla that..." and "Steven...Sean...Cassidy...Lydia..." it's insane."

He paused.

"An' Lexi...from the very first day...she just walked into her class like she owned the place."

Alyssa chuckled.

"No one could ever accuse her of being a shrinking violet...that's for sure."

Veronica felt herself getting a little misty. She missed the kids...especially the girls. She had loved to sit with them and make up stories for them. Then they acted some of them out with their dolls. But _her _favorites were the ones about two little girls who lived in the back of an old fashioned candy store their parents owned.

Those were the ones she had been thinking about the most.

"Oh!" Lyssa exclaimed. "We didn't tell what Jesse did!"

And Veronica listened with rapt attention as Alyssa told her about the story Jesse that written and what the school was doing with it. He and Mr. Morrissey had spent the past two weeks polishing it up...and now the art teacher had selected an eighth grade boy to do a few illustrations. Things were moving along so that they could send it along to the printer by the first of October.

Veronica reached into the pocket of her jeans. The story of Jesse's literary triumph was the perfect segue into the favor she wanted to ask Alyssa and Kelly.

Veronica slid a thumb drive across the table toward Alyssa.

"What's this?"

"I've been writing..." she said. "I've been writing a lot."

"You said..." Alyssa answered.

"No...I mean I've _really_ been writing a lot." Veronica said. "And I was thinking about something."

She paused for a minute.

"Do you remember on Halloween? When I was telling the little kids stories?"

Alyssa nodded.

"Well...Morgan told me one of them was really good. This one about a little ghost...he said it could be a book. So I was thinking about that...and I decided to see if he meant what he said about trying to get it published."

Veronica looked down at the thumb drive and nodded her head.

"I wrote the story out...that and a couple of others...and I wondered if you'd be willing to give them to him to take a look at."

Alyssa and Kelly looked at one another.

"Sure..." Kelly said. "I'll probl'y see him in the next few days."

Morgan's show "Chicago Fire" was in its fifth season now...and Kelly still worked as a consultant on his days off. Especially if they were filming a big fire scene...then he was still right beside Hollywood in the event things went South.

They stayed about another hour...then Veronica had a therapy session to get to.

As Kelly and Lyssa headed out to the visitor's lot he threw his arm around her shoulders.

"She's really gettin' better." he said.

After having seen her in Lakeshore after what Trey did to her...the broken jaw...the clumps of hair pulled from her head. The eyes swollen shut and her nose and lips all blown up out of proportion...he wondered how she was ever gonna recover from that. And forget the physical...having to hear the horrible things that animal used to tell her.

Kelly had never told any of the men at the firehouse what he had heard when Veronica told her story to the cops. If he had, Wilson might not have been alive when the cops came to pick him up.

All of that...over a period of years...Kelly had privately had his doubts that Veronica could even hope to recover. That she could ever have a normal life after that.

"Yeah...I think she is, Honey." Alyssa said softly, with just a hint of a smile.

The next afternoon, Alyssa was talking to Kelly on the phone.

"Yeah...I gave Hollywood the flash drive." Kelly was saying. "He says he'll take a look at it tonight."

Alyssa had read the files last night. Besides the little ghost story there were a couple of "episodes" from the stories Veronica used to make up for Maggie and Lexi. She'd titled them "The Candy Shop Capers"...and they were really wonderful stories.

She could totally see them being made into a series of children's books. They were just the type of thing she had liked to read when she was young.

The bell over the door jingled.

"I gotta go, Honey..." Alyssa said quietly. "I'll see you at home tonight."

She ended the call, and looked up to see who had just walked into the store.

It was the strangest looking couple she'd ever seen.

The woman was short...about her height...but probably about two hundred pounds. Her clothes were shabby and obviously had been bought for the price rather than the fit, and her hair was a brassy... orangey shade of blonde. She wore ridiculously large sunglasses that she didn't take off...even inside...even when she bumped into a table near the front of the store.

The guy was even weirder. Creepy even.

He was taller than the woman...maybe five eight...five nine. And skinny as a rail. His jeans were the super skinny kind that maybe a teenager might wear. Everything about him was black. His hair was jet black...prob'ly dyed. It was shaggy and hanging in his eyes.

He looked up at Alyssa standing behind the counter and she felt a chill run down her spine.

His eyes were black. She could see it from across the room. It was like looking into an abyss. There was nothing there.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

"Why are we doing this again?" Dorrie asked. "Are you sure it's safe?"

Jax rolled his eyes in exasperation. This had to be the nine millionth time she'd asked that question.

They were standing outside Helping Hands...the place Kelly's wife worked.

"Yes." he said, frustration coloring his tone. "I told you...we have to find out everything we can about her. She's the daughter of the biggest crime family in Chicago! If we're gonna take them down...we need intel. And this is the only way to do it."

"But if she's bad...how come she works in a place that helps people?"

Dorrie pointed to the sign above the awning.

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"Good God...don't you know anything?" Jax groaned.

He was so irritated his hands were shaking...but that happened sometimes when he stopped taking his meds. But those meds were shit...and they made him feel like shit. Without them everything was so much more alive...so much clearer...crisper. Things were faster...louder...more intense...interesting. Not dull and grey and boring as death.

"It's a cover. Like we're under cover. The mafia wants everyone to believe they run legitimate businesses...and a place like this, a do-gooder's paradise is the perfect front to launder dirty money."

Dorrie wasn't sure. She didn't understand a lot of the things Jax said...but he got the information off some super top-secret government computer. And he said the government knew everything about everybody...that they had satellites so powerful that they knew how much money she had in her pocket right that very minute. They knew if she crossed the street on a red light...or if she threw recyclables in the regular garbage.

So he must know what he's talking about.

"You want to help Kelly, don't you?" he asked.

She nodded her head furiously.

"Well, in order to get him away from these people we have to get the dirt on the whole operation...so the feds can move in and arrest 'em." he said. "Now...you ready? We're goin' in."

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The bell over the door jingled.

"I gotta go, Honey..." Alyssa said quietly. "I'll see you at home tonight."

She ended the call, and looked up to see who had just walked into the store.

It was the strangest looking couple she'd ever seen.

The woman was short...about her height...but probably about two hundred pounds. Her clothes were shabby and obviously had been bought for the price rather than the fit, and her hair was a brassy... orangey shade of blonde. She wore ridiculously large sunglasses that she didn't take off...even inside...even when she bumped into a table near the front of the store.

The guy was even weirder. Creepy even.

He was taller than the woman...maybe five eight...five nine. And skinny as a rail. His jeans were the super skinny kind that maybe a teenager might wear. Everything about him was black. His hair was jet black...prob'ly dyed. It was shaggy and hanging in his eyes.

He looked up at Alyssa standing behind the counter and she felt a chill run down her spine.

His eyes were black. She could see it from across the room. It was like looking into an abyss. There was nothing there.

Alyssa swallowed hard.

"Can I help you find something?" she asked.

"Just lookin'..." the guy answered as he began to move around the store.

The woman just stared...at least Alyssa thought she was staring. It was hard to tell through the shades.

"Well...if there's anything I can do..." Alyssa said uneasily.

She reached out and grabbed her phone from the counter and just held it in her hand.

Definitely creepy...definitely something wrong with these two.

She wished Kelly wasn't all the way down on the South side today.

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The next day at the firehouse Kelly was out front looking under the hood of Casey's truck.

"Your timing belt's loose..." he said to Matt.

"Can you fix it?"

Severide rolled his eyes.

Could he fix it? Andy and Jesse could prob'ly fix it.

"Yeah...let me grab my tool box."

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Kelly headed toward his car...just in time to see a now familiar figure lumbering up the block.

Oh...God...he groaned.

It was the girl from the Wilson street accident...Dorrie.

He changed directions, hoping to head her off at the pass...but Dorrie broke into an enormous smile and started to run toward him...

Oh...God...he groaned again.

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"Kelly!" Dorrie cried as she slowed to a stop right in front of him. "Kelly...I'm so happy...I missed you so much..."

"What're you doing?" he cut her off sharply. "You can't keep comin' around here all the time."

"But...but...but..." she stammered.

Why was he acting so angry? He liked her...didn't he? So why was he mad at her?

"No." he said. "You've gotta stop..."

"It's okay. You don't have to pretend anymore." Dorrie lowered her voice. "I know all about your "problem"...Jax told me everything. I just wanna help you."

"I don't know what the hell you're talkin' about. I don't know what "problem" you think I've got, but..."

Dorrie laid her hand on his arm...and Kelly stiffened.

"About the gambling...and the guy from the Mafia makin' you marry his daughter." she said. "It was all in the secret government computer...Jax told me the whole story."

"I have no idea who Jax is...but he definitely told you a story."

"I know you don't love her...I know you're just pretendin'...so her father doesn't make you swim with the fishes." she insisted. "We could run away! We could get outta Chicago...an' go to someplace nice...like Wisconsin! An' we could get married and we'd be really happy...and..."

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"What?!"

He took a couple steps back.

"You're outta your damn mind!" Kelly said as he looked at Dorrie standing in front of him...with her crazy outfit and the orange hair...and the make-up smeared all over her face. "I don't know where you're gettin' this crap from...but you're WRONG!"

This had gone too far...and he needed to put a stop to it once and for all.

"I have a family...and I love them more than anything in the world. I don't have...I've NEVER had a gambling problem. I'm not involved with the Mafia...and nobody FORCED me to marry my wife." he told her. "Now...you need to turn around...and walk away. And you need to stop comin' down here. I mean it. I don't wanna see you back at this house again."

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Dorrie's eyes filled with tears and her bottom lip trembled as she fought to control the sobs building up inside her.

Why was he talking to her like this? Couldn't he see that she loved him...and that she just wanted to get him away from the people who could hurt him?

What Jax said about the Mafia had to be true...if he got the information from the government it_ had_ to be right. The President wouldn't make up lies! So why was Kelly saying none of it was true?

"Go on." Kelly said. "Get outta here...and don't come back."

And with that he turned and walked back toward the house.

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He didn't want to have to be so harsh with Dorrie. She obviously had a lot of problems...but she was becoming a real nuisance. Clarke had told him that he thought he saw her at a couple of scenes...with some scrawny lookin' guy in a black leather jacket.

That had to be Jax...whoever the hell he was. And either he was handing the girl a line...or he was just as crazy as she was. Maybe both.

Where had they come up with that ridiculous story? That he owed money to the mob? For gambling debts? And he was forced to marry Alyssa or swim with the fishes? Somebody had been watchin' too many old movies.

Kelly yanked open the door and went inside Station 51. Once it closed behind him, he dared to look back.

Dorrie was still standing there...but then she turned and staggered down the block toward the bus stop.

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"Who was that?" Cruz asked when Severide came into the common room.

"The president of his fan club." Hermann said.

"Shut up." Kelly told them. "She's got somethin' wrong with her. She's mentally challenged...or whatever you call it."

"Well _that's_ obvious." Otis put in.

"So...she's like a kid." Kelly said. "And I just yelled at her to try and get a point across..."

"You did what you had to do." Shay said from across the room. "She can't keep coming down here every shift..."

"Yeah...we're firemen." Hermann added. "Not social workers."

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Kelly came down the stairs. He'd just read Maggie and Lexi their stories and tucked his girls in their beds. Andy was downstairs in the basement watching TV and Jesse was up in his room...doing some research for another story, he said.

Alyssa was in the living room curled up on the couch reading another story Veronica had sent on the tablet when Kelly stretched out alongside her. He reached to take the pad away from her, but she held up one finger, indicating she wasn't finished yet.

Once she got to a stopping point, she marked her place and set the pad aside. Then she gladly turned into her husband's waiting arms and Kelly pulled her in and wrapped his body around her.

Lyssa started to trace those familiar patterns across his shoulders while he laid his head against her shoulder. He closed his eyes and smiled. This was what he'd been waiting for all day...since he'd gotten off shift at seven that morning.

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But something wasn't right.

Alyssa seemed distracted...bothered.

"What's wrong, Babe?" he asked.

Lyssa shook her head.

"Sorry...just thinking about something that happened at work yesterday." She said. "This couple came in the store. They didn't buy anything...they just looked around...but...I don't know. They were really weird. Not just how they were acting...the way they looked. The girl was really awkward...and the guy was just plain creepy."

She shuddered at the memory.

Kelly held her tighter.

"What about 'em?" he asked.

He knew Lyssa would never relax till she got whatever was bothering he off her chest.

"The girl was really big...heavy, I mean. And her clothes didn't fit her at all. She had this brassy...orange hair...and she was wearing these huge sunglasses that took up half her face. She never took 'em off...even inside...and she must have bumped into half a dozen things. She never said a word...but I just got the feeling she was watching me." she said. "And the guy was even weirder. He was skinny...like...rail thin. And he had this shaggy hair hanging all in his face. Everything was black...his hair...his clothes...shoes...he was even wearing black eyeliner. And he was wearing a leather jacket. It was like...ninety degrees yesterday!"

She looked at Kelly.

"But the worst part was his eyes. They were like black holes...there was nothin' there. Like he didn't even have a soul."

"I think you've watchin' vampire movies again." Kelly said lightly.

"I'm serious, Kelly." Lyssa insisted. "I just looked at this guy...and I got chills down my spine. I don't know what it was about him...but he'd bad news."

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Kelly settled deeper into Alyssa's arms.

The girl she described sounded like it could have been Dorrie...so was the guy with her Jax? That was the name she kept saying. Jax.

The description fit what Clarke had told him...skinny, black hair, black clothes.

What were they doing in Alyssa's store?

After that bullshit story Dorrie had spouted off...about Kelly marrying the daughter of a mobster to get out of a debt...now they were poking around too close to home and he didn't like it.

He made up his mind that tomorrow he'd call Antonio Dawson, Gabby's brother...who just happened to be a cop. Hopefully he'd have some good advice.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

Antonio Dawson ran up the drive to the firehouse in order to get out of the pouring rain.

"Hey..." he said to Clarke and Tony, who were sitting at Squad's sacred table. "Severide around?"

"I think he's in his quarters." Clarke replied. "Want me to go get 'im?"

"That's okay...I know my way around here pretty good." Antonio answered. "You guys mind?"

"Be my guest." Clarke told him.

Tony just shrugged.

Antonio headed down the hall that led to the officers' quarters. He stopped at the door to Severide's and rapped three times with the back of his hand.

"Yeah?" Severide called from behind the door.

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The detective let himself in.

"Hey...Antonio." Severide said as he slid his chair back from the desk and held out his hand.

"Hey yourself..." Antonio answered as returned the handshake.

Kelly took a seat again, and Dawson perched himself on the edge of the desk.

"I found some stuff out about that girl...Dorrie Weinhart." he said.

"Yeah?"

"You're right...she's not all there." Dawson went on. "Special Ed all through school...she went through some kinda independent living program a few years back...and she's spent some time in a couple different psych hospitals."

"Do you know what for?" Kelly asked.

Antonio shook his head.

"Some kinda mood disorder...and "explosive personality"."

"In English?"

"She's a loose cannon." Antonio said.

"And what about the guy?" Kelly wanted to know. "Did you find out anything about him?"

Antonio shook his head again.

"I got nothin'. Not even a name." he said.

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Kelly wiped his hand down his face.

These people had gone to his wife's store...so they'd seen Alyssa. They knew who she was and where to find her. Even though that whole story Dorrie told him was pure fantasy...she had to have gotten it from somewhere...from whoever Jax was.

What else did these people know...or think they knew?

"So what do I do?"

"You already told her to stay away." Antonio said. "If she keeps comin' around you can get a restraining order. If it comes to that."

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"Truck 81...Ambulance 61...Squad 3..."

The rain had been coming down hard for the past couple of hours...and there were some deep puddles and standing water in some low-lying areas. And the drainage system was on the verge of being overwhelmed.

Three boys had been playing in the puddles by the aqueducts and when it began to rain really hard they ducked in behind a steel grate to take shelter inside one of the concrete tunnels. But as the rain continued to pour out of the sky the water flowing through the grate was coming faster and faster. And the water was rising.

Severide and Newhouse pulled their dive gear on in the back of the Squad as they raced toward the scene. Calls like this were the worst...when they knew kids were involved.

The two men jumped off as soon as the truck stopped rolling, and Kelly was already moving toward the aqueduct. He could hear the screams over the roar of the rushing water and the crash of the thunder. These kids were scared to death...and he had to work fast.

He waded into the water that was already well past his knees...almost to his waist. He could see the boys...hair plastered to their heads...the tips of their fingers a ghostly white from their grip on the grate in front of them. The grate that separated them from the firefighters.

"Hold on..." Severide called out. "We'll have ya out in a minute!"

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He grabbed hold of the rusty metal and pulled as hard as he could. But it was no use. The force of the water pushed against it and it held fast.

Kelly tried to raise it...nothing.

"How'd you get in?" he hollered.

"There's a hole!" one of the kids cried. "On the bottom by my feet! There's a little hole and we crawled in through there!"

"I can't hold on!" another boy sobbed. "My hands are tired!"

He couldn't have been more than a year of two older than Maggie.

"What's your name?" Severide asked.

"Joshua!" the little boy cried.

"I'm comin' to get you, Joshua!" Kelly promised. "Just hang on a minute longer!"

He turned to his men.

"I'm goin' down..." he said as he shrugged off his air tank.

The hole had to be pretty tiny...there was no way a SCUBA tank was gonna fit through.

Severide pulled his face mask into place...took a deep breath...and went under.

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There was absolutely no visibility...and the current was pulling him headfirst toward where he knew that grate was. He put out his hands in front of him and felt them slam against the metal.

Feeling his way toward the bottom, his knuckles scraped concrete...and he found the opening. It was barely big enough for a kid...how the hell was a grown man gonna fit through there?

But he had to. Three little boys were depending on him.

Severide pulled with every bit of strength he had and he was able to make the hole a few inches wider. He debated going up for a breath...but he couldn't take the time. Instead he forced all the air out of his lungs to make himself as small as possible...and dropped his right shoulder toward the ground. Then he slid through the opening, the jagged edges of metal catching and pulling on his wet suit. One good tug, and he felt cold against his leg. He'd torn his suit...but he couldn't worry about that.

Finally he wiggled his way through the opening that was really only big enough for a child. But like everything else on this job, you never knew what you were going to be able to make yourself do when lives were on the line. A man could lift things he shouldn't be able to...squeeze into spaces he otherwise wouldn't...couldn't. Run through a wall of flames, scale a wall...the rush of adrenaline Severide got in these situations made a lot of otherwise impossible things suddenly possible.

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Kelly broke the surface and took in a huge breath of air...then he started grabbing the boys.

And not a minute too soon...just as he reached for Joshua...the little boy's fingers fell away from the metal grate and a rush of water started to carry him away.

While Kelly held his footing in the swirling, rush of water that had risen up to his chest...and struggled to keep the three boys from being washed down the line...Clarke and Mills fired up the acetylene torches and began cutting though the rusted metal just above the water line. If they could create a "window", Severide could pass the boys to them and then climb out himself.

But they had to work fast.

The firefighters worked, totally oblivious to the fact that they had an audience.

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About thirty yards away, Dorrie and Jax stood beside an empty building.

Jax was clicking away with the camera as the rescue unfolded. Dorrie wrung her hands as she saw Kelly shrug off his tank and go under the water. It seemed like forever before he came back up again and saved those little boys. But all that mattered was that _he_ was safe.

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Clarke cut the torch and a second later Mills did the same. Newhouse and Tony reached in and yanked and pulled the piece that had just been cut and then Casey reached in to take Joshua from behind the grate and run him over to the waiting ambulance.

Otis grabbed the next boy...and Cruz and Hermann helped the biggest one climb through the hole.

By then Clarke and Mills had set aside the torches and they reached in to help Severide climb out. Kelly stood for a moment to catch his breath and then waded from the swirling mess. That's when he saw them.

Still dripping in his wet suit he took off at a dead run toward the brick facade where Dorrie and Jax were standing...observing every move.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" he yelled as he grabbed the camera away from Jax. "You think this is some kinda sideshow?!"

"Gimme back my camera!" Jax hollered as he grabbed for the expensive piece of equipment.

But Kelly was furious.

Three kids could have died...been swept down the line and dumped into the lake. It could have taken days...even weeks to find them and figure out what happened. And in the meantime their families would be worried sick.

And these two were acting like this was all for entertainment.

He smashed the camera against the brick.

"Get outta here!" he roared. "I mean it! I don't wanna see either of you again!"

"Kelly!" Dorrie cried.

He turned to her.

"I told you before...stop coming around! If I see you again...at the firehouse...at a scene...I'm callin' the cops!"

"But Kelly..." she cried. "I just wanna see you! I wanna help you! You gotta get away from that crazy lady...you don't gotta pretend! I love you!"

"The only crazy one here is you!" Kelly said. "Now go!"

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He turned around and headed back for the Squad to get out of his wet suit. Behind him he could hear Dorrie sobbing and Jax cussing. And his belly burned with rage.

"What the hell was that?" Boden demanded as Severide came toward him.

Kelly shook his head and glared over his shoulder at the pair.

Jax was picking up the pieces of the camera off the sidewalk.

"That girl that keeps comin' 'round the house...remember?"

"Looks like she made a new friend." The Chief observed.

"Yeah...he's gettin' off on this. It's not the first time they followed us to a scene. Some of the other guys've seem 'em."

Boden leveled his stare on Dorrie and Jax.

"I think it's time we involve our friends over at the CPD."

"I already reached out to Dawson's brother." Kelly told him.

"Call 'im again when we get back." Boden said.

"I will..."

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Kelly climbed in the back of the Squad and began to pull off his gear as they headed for Station 51.

"Hey, Lieutenant..." Newhouse said. "Looks like you cut yourself. You're leg's bleeding."

Severide looked down and saw a deep gash from the middle of his left thigh down to his knee. He must have cut it when he tore his wet suit on the metal grate.

The cut looked deep...like it might need stitches. He certainly needed to clean it out. God only knew what was in that water.

He sighed as he got back into his clothes. He'd shower once he got back to the firehouse...then see what he had to do next. Prob'ly call Lyssa...

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That's what he ended up doing.

Lyssa came to pick him up and take him down to Lakeshore ER. As they walked out of Station 51 to the car parked at the curb, Kelly draped his arm around his wife's shoulders and leaned on her just a little bit.

But across the street, parked in a silver Camry...

"Where's he goin'?" Dorrie asked.

She wasn't sure they should go back to the firehouse. Kelly seemed pretty mad when he told them to go away. He even said he was gonna call the police. But Jax was mad too. Kelly broke their camera...and they needed it. If they were gonna continue to gather 'intel' on the infamous Boun-gi-o-vanni, or however the hell you pronounced it, crime family...they needed their equipment.

Jax put his hand in his pocket, making sure he had the very thing he needed. His hand closed around it and he reached for the door handle.

"No!" Dorrie cried, grabbing his arm. "What're you doin'?"

"He smashed my camera!" Jax said.

"We can get another one!" Dorrie said. "A better one! But don't hurt him!"

Jax slumped back in the driver's seat and watched Alyssa help Kelly into the passenger seat of the mini-van. She leaned in and gave him a little kiss before shutting the door and dashing around to the other side.

"Where're they goin'?" Dorrie asked again.

"There's only one way to find out." Jax told her as he turned the key in the ignition.

The Severide's car pulled away from the curb...and Jax slowly counted to ten before he made a U-turn and began to follow them.

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At the hospital Kelly got the cut on his leg washed out again with some antiseptic cleaner that stung like hell...then flushed with about a liter of saline. The doctor put four absorbable sutures in the deepest part of the gash...then closed the skin with about twenty staples.

After the PA dressed the wound they gave him a short knee immobilizer to wear for the next few days till he got the staples out.

"C'mon..." he said to Alyssa once he'd signed the discharge papers. "Let's get outta here."

He squeezed her hand as they drove toward their house.

"Are you okay?" she asked. "Does it hurt?"

"Not really..." Kelly answered. "I'm just frustrated."

He was gonna be out about three shifts...ten days...but that wasn't going to solve his other problem. What to do about Dorrie and her sidekick...Jax. There was definitely something wrong with him...worse that whatever Dorrie had goin' on.

Kelly couldn't help but be worried...for Dorrie...who was obviously vulnerable. But more for Alyssa...that guy had been in her store. And what about their kids? Had this nut job seen them?

As soon as they got home, he was going to call Antonio Dawson again. They needed to find out who this guy was...and fast...before something happened.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

Kelly made the call the next morning and then he headed down to the 21st Precinct where Antonio worked.

Lyssa didn't want him to go...at least not by himself...but Kelly insisted he was fine. The cut and the immobilizer were on his left leg...there was no reason he couldn't drive. Besides...he didn't want his wife to know these two nuts were following him to fire scenes and taking pictures. It was all a little too stalker-ish and he wasn't gonna give Alyssa another thing to worry about when he went back to work in another week or so.

"What happened to you?" Dawson asked as Kelly made his way through the bull pen to Antonio's desk.

"Aahh..." Kelly grunted. "I got cut on a rusty gate...an' I got twenty-some staples holdin' everything together."

"I'm not even gonna ask." Antonio said, shaking his head.

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Severide sat down in the chair beside the cop's desk.

"Dorrie showed up again." he said. "At the scene yesterday. And she was with that guy...the one she calls Jax. They were...well, _he _was...taking pictures. He had this...state of the art digital camera with a lens...you could prob'ly take pictures from the moon."

Antonio tossed his pen down on the desk.

"I really think you oughta consider a restraining order." he said. "Show 'er you mean business."

"She's not really the one I'm worried about." Kelly replied. "I mean, it's annoying...her bein' there every time you turn around...but Dorrie seems pretty harmless. It's that guy that's feeding her all these crazy ideas about Lyssa's family bein' in the Mafia and me owing them money. She thinks he's getting this information from some 'top secret government computer'...that's what she said."

"Listen, I agree with you...but we don't know who _he_ is. With Dorrie we got a name...an address..."

"Does she have any family? Parents? Someone who looks out for her? Can't we...maybe reach out and let them know what she's mixed up with?"

The cop shrugged.

"I can do some more diggin'." he said. "But we can definitely do the paperwork for the TRO...get it signed today."

Kelly nodded. It wasn't something he necessarily _wanted_ to do...but for the sake of his family it was something he _had_ to do.

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Dorrie sat at the table in her apartment with a new laptop open in front of her.

Jax taught her to use this program called "ImageMorph"...where she could take a photo of Kelly and one of her...and mix 'em together. It showed her what their children were gonna look like. The children they would have once the Mafia people were in jail and Kelly was free of them.

She didn't know what would happen to his wife...Alyssa...once her father was arrested. And the four kids...the two boys and the two little girls. Maybe they'd all go away in witness protection like Jax said. But Kelly would be with her. She was sure of it. And they'd be so happy. They'd move far, far away from Chicago and he could still be a fireman...and she would have all these little children she was busily creating...who came to life on the screen in front of her.

First there was a boy...Michael. That was Kelly's middle name...and he looked like Kelly...so handsome. Then there was a little girl, Becca. She looked a little more like Dorrie...but she had Kelly's blue eyes.

There were two more boys...Gavin and Christopher...and another girl...Shaylynne.

And maybe just one more...that way they could have three of each.

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She was busily mixing features when there was a knock on the door.

Dorrie hauled herself to her feet and hurried to open it. Maybe it was Jax...coming to get her for another mission.

But there was a strange man standing there...and for a minute she was frightened.

"Dorrie Weinhart?" he asked.

"Yes?" she said in a trembling voice.

He held out a heavy envelope to her.

"What's this?"

She opened the envelope carefully...cautiously. Jax said bad people sometimes sent bombs through the mail.

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It was a bunch of paper...Dorrie tried to read it...but except for the little words, she couldn't.

"I can't read this." she whispered. "What does it say?"

The man looked at her with pity in his eyes. Detective Dawson had told him this girl was challenged.

"It's a restraining order." the man told her. "It says that you aren't to go within a hundred and fifty feet of Lieutenant Kelly Severide...his home...his vehicle...or Firehouse 51 for the next ninety days. At which time you will have to appear in court."

"What?! Why!?" Dorrie cried. "Why would it say that!?"

The man shook his head.

"It's just my job to serve the papers, ma'am."

And with that he was gone.

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Dorrie slammed the door so hard it rattled...and she ran to the phone.

Furiously, she punched in numbers...so fast that she got mixed up and had to hang up and try again. On the third try she finally got the call to go through...and it rang and rang and rang.

She slammed the phone down...then picked it up and tried again.

And again.

Where was Jax? Why wasn't he answering?

He would know what these papers meant. He was smart. You had to be to be in the CIA. He would explain who did this.

But the phone just kept on ringing.

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The crew assembled for morning roll call down at Station 51.

"Listen up everyone..." Chief Boden said. "I've got some sad news."

The whole team quieted down...

"Severide just called me...and Alyssa's dad passed. Happened last night."

There were a few murmurs...Cruz and Hermann both made the Sign of the Cross.

"I'll get the particulars as far as the arrangements go." Chief said. "Kelly said they were lookin' to have the wake tomorrow and the funeral the day after that. But I'll get all the details."

The firefighters all filed out of the briefing room.

It was sad. None of them could really say they knew Tony Boungiovanni well. He was a quiet man who kept to himself and didn't say much. He was old...in his eighties...but as far as anyone knew he had been in good health. This was all so sudden.

Their thoughts were with Alyssa and the kids...

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Dorrie didn't know what to do.

The man from the police had come to give her some piece of paper that said she couldn't see Kelly anymore...she couldn't get a hold of Jax...her brother Scott was working in Iraq on some construction project. He called after she got in the car accident and told her she wasn't allowed to drive until he got back. But that was the last time she talked to him.

And her case worker, Mrs. Phillips, would be really mad at her if she got in trouble with the police.

Maybe Kelly's wife had something to do with this. Maybe Alyssa was the one who didn't want her around her man.

She had to talk to Kelly. He'd explain why this was happening. And maybe this time he wouldn't yell. If it was just her and him...then maybe he'd be sweet.

But how was she gonna talk to him if she wasn't supposed to go near him or go to the firehouse?

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She paced back and forth...thinking...just thinking about what she could do.

Kelly was a fireman...and if there was a fire he'd have to come...right?

She looked around the apartment. She didn't have any matches or a lighter because she wasn't allowed to smoke. And she couldn't make it too obvious. People got in trouble for starting fires on purpose. It had to be an accident.

Dorrie ran to the stove and turned on the burner. Then she put the skillet on the stove and carefully poured the vegetable oil into the pan. She purposely used too much...not like they taught in cooking class. And the flame was way too high too.

Finally she took two hamburgers out of the freezer and threw them in the oil. And Dorrie sat down to wait.

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"Engine 51...Truck 81...Ambulance 61...Squad 3..."

The firefighters pulled onto the scene and they could see the smoke and flames coming out the third story window.

"Is everybody out?" Casey asked one of the civilians standing on the lawn.

"The girl 'dat lives in 'dat apartment...she ain't come out!" an older man said. "She's retarded or somethin'!"

"We'll check it out." Clarke said as he and Mills ran to the front of the building.

He stopped and Squad 3 pulled their masks into place.

"Okay...Tony and Newhouse start on two...me an' Mills'll go up to three."

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Clarke and Mills raced up the stairs.

This had to be where the fire was...the smoke was thicker and darker...there was barely anything on two and nothing at all on one.

Clarke kicked in the door.

"Fire Department!" he yelled. "Call out!"

"Here!" a voice called. "I'm here!"

They headed toward the sound...and they found the victim.

She was huddled in a corner on the far side of the room. She hadn't even made an attempt to get out from the look of things.

But you never could tell how a person was going to react in a fire.

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"C'mon!" Clarke told her. "We got you!"

Dorrie just stared at the man who was reaching out to take her hand.

It wasn't Kelly!

Who was this guy? And why was he here instead of Kelly? Kelly was supposed to rescue her!

"No!" she screamed. "Get away from me!"

Mills tried to get in there.

"Ma'am! Come with us!" he said. "We'll take you outta here!"

"No! Where's Kelly?" Dorrie cried. "I want Kelly! I'm only goin' with Kelly!"

Clarke was done screwing around.

"Ma'am! Let's go!" He yelled. "We need to go now!"

He reached to take Dorrie by the hands...but she scooted farther back into the corner and kicked at him.

"Get out of here! Go get Kelly!" she screamed. "Kelly!"

Mills took a step back.

"Hey Chief!" he said into the radio. "We need more man-power up on three!"

Dorrie was still screaming hysterically...kicking with every bit of strength she could muster...swinging her arms when Clarke managed to dodge her feet.

Finally she connected and knocked his mask askew.

"Go away!"

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Casey and Cruz burst into the burning apartment.

Clarke tried to right his mask the best he could, and the four firefighters each grabbed one of the flailing limbs.

"Tell Shay and Dawson to get the Haldol and the restraints ready!" Casey called into the radio.

The men wrestled Dorrie down three flights of stairs...her fighting them every step of the way.

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When they finally emerged from the building Shay and Dawson met them with the gurney. Everybody struggled to hold Dorrie down while the paramedics slapped four-point restraints on as quickly as they could.

Chief and Tony jumped in too...and finally Shay sank a syringe deep into the girl's left thigh.

And they all waited.

Time seemed to stand still while they waited for Dorrie to stop thrashing around so they could move her to the ambo. It was like an eternity...till the fight finally drained out of her.

"Mills...you go with them..." Chief said. "Just in case."

"Copy that." Mills replied, as he followed the ladies to the back of Ambulance 61.

He and Dawson climbed in back while Leslie jumped behind the wheel.

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Clarke pulled off his helmet and mask and took a deep breath.

"What happened in there?" Boden asked.

"She wanted Severide. She kept hollerin' for him."

Before the Chief could say another word...Hermann's voice came over the radio.

"Fire's out..."


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

"Lyssa? Is this tie okay for tonight?" Kelly asked as he held up one of the few neckties he owned.

Alyssa came over to look.

"It's fine, Honey." she said. "It's perfect..."

Kelly draped it around his neck and leaned down to kiss his wife.

Tonight was the wake for Tony Boungiovanni...Alyssa's dad.

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Two days ago...at the crack of dawn...they'd received a hysterical phone call from Nadine.

She couldn't wake Tony...she cried. He wasn't breathing...and his face was cold.

Alyssa told her to call 911...and she was on her way.

Not even twenty minutes after that, Kelly got a call from his wife.

"He's gone..." she said quietly, her voice sounding very far away. "He died in his sleep."

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Kelly was torn.

On the one hand he wanted to rush over to his in-laws' apartment and be there for Alyssa. He had lost a parent...he knew what it felt like. But he had four kids to get off to school.

He knew what he had to do...so he woke the boys a little before the normal time and asked them to come into his room.

Andy and Jesse sat down on the edge of the queen sized bed, one on either side of Kelly.

"Where's Mom?" Jesse asked.

Kelly had been trying to figure out a way to break the news, and his son had just offered him the perfect set-up.

"We got a phone call early this morning...and Papa passed away in his sleep." He said. "And your mom went over to be with Nonna."

"When's she coming back?" Andy wanted to know.

"As soon as things settle down over there." Kelly answered. "She'll prob'ly bring Nonna back here."

The twins sat quietly...they weren't sure what to say...what was appropriate.

Tony Sr. was their grandfather...but neither boy felt like they knew him the way they did Grandpa Benny. They celebrated holidays and birthdays with the whole family, but Papa mostly sat quietly...and he didn't speak unless you said something to him first. Grandpa Benny came over for dinner...came to their games...stuff at school. Papa had never even been to St. Pasqual's.

It was sad that Papa was gone...and it would be weird to go over to the apartment and have him not be there in his favorite chair.

Dad was saying something...

"I'm not gonna tell your sisters till after school..." he said. "So let's just play it close to the vest for now, okay?"

They both nodded in agreement and Kelly put one arm around Andy's shoulders and pulled him in. He kissed his first-born on the top of the head and gave him one more squeeze before he switched arms and did the same to Jesse.

Then he sent them to start getting ready for school.

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He woke the girls a little while later...and got them into their school uniforms...then herded all four kids downstairs for breakfast.

"But I don' like cereal." Maggie protested when he set a bowl of Cheerios down in front of her. "I want pancakes!"

Kelly sighed. His culinary skills weren't the greatest. He probably _could_ put pancakes on the table...but there was no guarantee they'd be safe for human consumption.

"And I told you, 'Mommy's not here'..." he reminded his daughter. "So it's cereal or nothin'."

Maggie crossed her arms over her little chest.

"Fine..." Kelly said. "Suit yourself. You're gonna be a very hungry girl."

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Lexi was shoveling her Cheerios into her mouth.

"Juice, peas?" she asked...looking up at him with big blue eyes.

"Sure..." he said as he limped over to the fridge. "And thank-you for asking so nicely."

He glanced over his shoulder to catch the look on Maggie's face.

Thankfully Lexi was oblivious...having gone back to shoveling food again.

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"You're actin' like a spoiled brat, Maggie..." Andy whispered to her.

"I am not!"

"Yeah...you are." Jesse said. "You need to eat your breakfast...'cause it's a long time till lunch."

"Where's Mommy?"

Kelly set Lexi's cup down on the table.

"She had to go over to Nonna and Papa's...Papa was really sick this morning...and Nonna needed your mom to help."

Jesse looked up and caught his dad's eye.

That was the story they were goin' with for now.

"Enough foolin' around..." Kelly said, his patience wearing thin. "Eat your breakfast, Maggie."

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Kelly turned back into his driveway after taking the girls to school.

It was absolutely ridiculous to have to drive three blocks...but with that damn brace on his knee it would have taken them twice as long. Maybe he'd call his dad and ask him to do the pick-ups...

Alyssa's car was parked in her usual spot...and Kelly hurried as quickly as he could to get inside and hold her.

Lyssa was just setting coffee down in front of her mom when he came in...and she quickly rushed into her husband's open arms.

Kelly pulled her close and held her tight.

"I love you..." he whispered, his voice husky with emotion. "You okay?"

Alyssa squeezed him tighter.

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Sitting at the table, Nadine dabbed her eyes.

She was still kicking herself...almost four years later...that she had been so closed minded about her daughter's marriage. She wanted Alyssa to marry the boy next door...and she spent the next ten years refusing to see what was right in front of her.

Lyssa had married exactly who she was meant to marry.

There were a few more whispers back and forth between Kelly and Alyssa, before he draped his arm around her shoulders and turned to his mother-in-law.

"I'm sorry, Nadine..." he said. "I'm sorry about Tony."

The older woman nodded.

"Thank you..." she said softly. "I just hope you and Lyssa have as many years together as we did."

Kelly did a little quick math.

Tony Sr. and Nadine had been married for sixty-three years.

"Me too..." he said, as he placed another kiss against Alyssa's hair.

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Kelly took his suit jacket and slacks from the hanger and brought them over to the bed.

He hoped his pants would fit over the brace he still wore on his left knee. Still about three or four more days till they could take the staples out...then a few more to let it heal.

There was a knock on the door as he sat down on the bed to put his pants on.

"Yeah?" he called out.

The twins came in wearing black suits that matched his and black dress shirts. Just like his.

"Are these ties okay?" Andy asked.

They each held up a tie...neither much different from the one Kelly planned to wear.

"Those'll be fine..." he said with a grin. "C'mere..."

He got to his feet and first he tied Andy's tie...then Jesse's.

"Okay...you're done. Don't get dirty..."

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Alyssa came into the room with the girls and their dresses. She tossed the dresses across the footboard and herded Maggie and Lexi up onto the bed.

But before she started to dress them she picked up Kelly's pants and started to help him.

"I got it, Lyssa..." he told her, reaching to take them back.

"No...it's okay." she said automatically.

Kelly sighed and let her help him. The last thing he wanted was to fight with her.

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Once she'd slipped the pants over the brace, she got busy with the girls...and once they were dressed in their black and white ruffled dresses, Alyssa sent them downstairs and slipped her own dress over her head.

She was rummaging through her jewelry when Kelly came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her.

"This is probably really inappropriate..." he said. "But you look beautiful."

Lyssa turned around in his embrace and smiled.

"Are you doin' okay?" he asked.

She nodded...and Kelly looked deep into her eyes.

Alyssa hadn't really taken time to process everything. She had been going almost non-stop since the call had come. She was cooking...baking...calling the Times and the Trib to get the obituary in the papers...calling her parents friends...gathering photos to put out at the funeral parlor. She was doing for everybody. For Kelly and the kids...her mom. She hadn't taken time to deal with how she was feeling.

He leaned down to kiss her.

Hopefully, they'd have time to talk later tonight...and maybe she'd be able to cry.

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The firehouse family all came to pay their respects...and Shay and Casey...Mouch...and Otis...all took turns watching the little ones. Maggie and Lexi, Ainsley and Trevor weren't really old enough to understand.

When they first got to the funeral home Alyssa and EmmaLynn had taken Maggie and Ainsley up to say a prayer for Papa...before things got too crowded. But Lexi and Trevor stayed in the lounge...playing with coloring books and quiet toys...and eating too many cookies.

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Clarke came up to Severide.

"Can I talk to you for a minute?" he asked in a low voice.

The two firefighters quietly left the chapel and went out the front doors.

Once they were away from the crowds, Clarke stuffed his hands deep into his pants pockets.

"What's goin' on?" Severide asked.

Clarke looked down at the ground and shifted his weight left to right.

"I know you got a lot on your plate right now..." he said. "An' I really don't wanna dump anything else on you..."

"Don't worry..." Kelly told him. "Spit it out."

"We had a call yesterday...to that Dorrie's place."

"What happened?"

Already, Kelly could tell he wasn't gonna like where this was going.

"She...set her apartment on fire..." Clarke said. "Looked like a cooking fire...but she was hunkered down in a corner..."

"Well, she's kinda slow...maybe she panicked."

"That's what I thought too...at first." Jeff told him. "But when she saw it was me there...and not you...she just...flipped out. She was screamin' and hittin'...kickin'..."

Clarke looked up...looked Severide in the eyes.

"If you ask me, I'd say she started the fire on purpose...just so you could come put it out."

Kelly wiped his hand down his face.

He had told the Chief about the restraining order...but he hadn't had a chance to tell the rest of the guys.

"What happened to her?" Kelly asked. "Did she get hurt?"

Jeff just shook his head.

"No...she's fine...physically anyway." he told him. "But they've got her at Lakeshore...on a seventy-two hour psych hold."

"Shit..."

"I just...thought you should know." Clarke said before he turned around and went back inside.

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Kelly quietly shut the door to his bedroom.

It had been a long...long...long day. And they had another one tomorrow.

He tugged at his tie as he slowly crossed the room to the bed. He unbuttoned his shirt...then undid his belt. He let his trousers fall to the floor and he awkwardly stepped out of them.

Alyssa came from the bathroom just as he was about to get into bed.

"Honey...let me help you." she said as she hurried to his side.

"I'm fine..." he told her.

But she didn't seem to hear him.

"Lyssa..." he said, as he stilled her hands. "Lyssa...stop."

"Kelly..."

He held her by the arms and gave her a not so gentle shake.

"Alyssa...I said 'stop'! Stop doing for everybody else for five minutes!"

She looked up at her husband...and Kelly felt his heart clench in his chest when he saw the tears swimming in her big, brown eyes.

He didn't want to be harsh with her...but she needed to let go. She needed to grieve.

"Lyssa..." he said, his voice softening. "Lyssa...you need to stop fussing over me...the kids...your mom...and you need to focus on you for a minute. Your dad's gone...and I know that means something to you. You need to let it out...let it go..."

He gathered her into his arms...and pulled her close. He stroked her long hair softly...whispering to her that it was okay...he loved her...everything was gonna be all right.

And he felt hot tears against his chest.

He tightened his grip...leaned down to kiss his wife on the top of her head...and blinked away a few tears of his own.


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

"Personal property for...John Rawlings Carter." the police officer behind the glass droned.

He shoved a manila envelope beneath the glass.

"Check the contents of the envelope against the property voucher, please." he went on. "One black leather wallet with silver colored chain...two black leather wrist cuffs with silver colored spikes...one silver colored cross necklace..."

He held up a specimen jar.

"Twenty-two various earrings, etc." he said. "Five silver colored rings...one black leather belt...and one cell phone."

"Yeah...it's all there." Jax grumbled.

"Sign the voucher, please..." the cop intoned.

Like he said the same thing a hundred times a day.

He probably did.

Jax scribbled something unintelligible on the form and started pocketing his valuables.

Five days in the can...that had to be a new personal low for him.

But, hey...at least he got three meals and the A/C worked. There was that...

'Your tax dollars at work, citizens...' he thought ruefully as he shoved open the door and stepped out into the hot September sun.

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He reached for his phone and powered it on.

There were a shitload of missed calls. He punched a few keys and got to his voicemail. Twenty-seven messages...some from Dorrie...but a bunch from a number he didn't recognize.

He listened to the most recent one.

"Jax! It's me!" Dorrie's voice practically screamed from the phone. "Where are you! I'm in big trouble an you gotta come! Right now!"

The message ended.

Come where? He listened to the next one.

It was her again. Something about a fire...and Kelly...

Jax rolled his eyes.

The third message had more information. She was at Lakeshore Hospital. In the psych ward.

Great...leave her on her own for a few days...and the retard gets herself locked up.

He sighed. He had to go get her out...

He had to steal a car.

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Clarke knocked on Boden's door.

"Enter!"

Jeff stepped inside the office.

"You wanted to see me, Chief?"

Boden closed the file in front of him.

"Yeah..." he said. "I just got off the phone with Severide. He's gonna be out three more shifts. I need you to cover the Lieutenant's position."

"Not a problem." Clarke told him. "That it?"

"Yeah...just wanted you to know." Chief replied.

"I'll clear my social calendar." Jeff quipped.

As he headed back to the common room Clarke wondered why Severide would be out so long for a cut on his leg...but then again...he wasn't about to turn up his nose at officer's pay, even if it was just for five or six shifts.

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The counselor led Dorrie to a room at the end of the hall.

"Where're you taking me?" she wanted to know.

"You have a visitor..." the young man said.

He opened the door...and Dorrie stepped into the room...

"Jax!" she cried...rushing at him.

She crashed into him...causing him to stagger backward several steps.

"Easy...Jesus..." he told her as he tried to regain his balance. "What're ya tryin' to do? Knock me on my ass?"

"Where've you been?" she asked, anger blazing in her otherwise dull brown eyes. "I've been calling and calling and calling..."

"I know..." he said. "But I was on a mission. Classified at the highest level."

He looked around...even though they were the only two in the room...leaned in and lowered his voice.

"The only person with high enough security clearance to hear about this mission is the President himself."

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Dorrie's mouth dropped open.

"You talked to the President?" she whispered in awe.

"Of course..." Jax scoffed. "I talk to him all the time. I've even been on Air Force 1."

He motioned for Dorrie to sit down at the table in the center of the room...then Jax perched himself on the edge...so he was looking down at her.

Then, the whole story tumbled out. It was hard to follow...it was like one continuous sentence. Dorrie barely stopped to take a breath.

She told him about the man from the police department coming to her apartment and handing her the paper. A restraining order, he called it, and he told her it said she wasn't allowed to go near Kelly...or the fire station. She couldn't find Jax...she called and called...

"I told you." he snapped. "I was away on a mission! This isn't the only case I'm workin', you know! In fact, this isn't even a case! This is just somethin' I'm doin' outta the goodness of my heart to help you out!"

"I know..." Dorrie stammered. "I'm sorry...I just got so upset..."

"So then what happened?"

The sooner she cut to the chase, the sooner he could get the hell outta there.

Hospitals gave him the creeps.

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"So I didn't know what to do! The only person I could think of to talk to was Kelly...and the paper said I'm not allowed to! But I thought if there was a fire...he'd have to come...right? Isn't that right?"

Jax motioned for her to keep it going...get to the end of the story.

"And I knew I had to make it look like a' accident...but when the firemans came, Kelly wasn't there! Some other guy came!" she told him.

She was sweaty...her hands were clammy...her eyes were wild with excitement.

"Why didn't Kelly come? What if something happened to him? I'm scared, Jax! What if the Mafia people did make 'im swim with the fishes?"

Jax stood up.

"Okay...calm down." he told her. "I'll check it out. But first things...we gotta get you outta here."

"They said I might gotta stay here till Scott comes home from Iraq!" she wailed.

"That's not gonna happen." Jax said. "I'm gonna tell you what to do...what to say."

He looked around again...like he was making sure they weren't being watched.

"Now...you gotta listen. You gotta say everything I tell you...you gotta remember every word."

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An hour later Jax was on the street.

He took a deep breath of fresh air.

Hospitals were worse than jail...with all the nuts around...the do-gooders shovin' pills at you left and right...like that was gonna fix everything. Pills made you dead inside...

He shoved his hands into his jacket pockets and walked down the street.

He needed to get some money...and another set of wheels.

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Things were blessedly slow at Station 51 and the team was basking in the downtime.

Clarke ran out to his truck after lunch to grab his tool box so he could fix a leak in one of the showers. As he jogged across the street...he never noticed the dark blue Chevy parked twenty yards away...or the man with the black hair and the Aviator glasses watching him.

Jax knew immediately which guy Dorrie was talking about when she said someone else had showed up at her apartment after she set the place on fire. He'd seen that firefighter at scenes...and just by the way he carried himself he seemed to have that "leader" quality about him. Prob'ly ex-military...Army, Marines...something like that.

Now he knew what the guy drove.

And he knew just what he was gonna do.

Time to have a little fun.

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At three o'clock the alarm on his phone went off...and Jax woke with a start.

It took him a minute to get his bearings. He was still in the blue Chevy he'd "borrowed" from a side street over in Lawndale.

He rolled his neck...and stretched his arms out in front of him...then cracked his knuckles.

Time to have that fun.

First, he popped the dome off the light...and unscrewed the bulb. The last thing he needed was someone to be headed for the kitchen to get a glass of milk and to see the light out on the street. Silently, he opened the driver's door and slipped out of the car, then crouching behind the other vehicles parked on the street he made his way to the black F150.

He slipped the lock in about two seconds and pulled the hood release.

Jax looked around to make sure he wasn't being watched, then he turned on the flashlight on his cell phone. It gave him more than enough light to work by...and in another two seconds the brake line of the firefighter's truck was in two pieces. Two seconds after that...so was the cable to the emergency brake.

He closed the hood with barely a sound...then reached into his pocket for his bandana handkerchief and wiped every place on the truck he'd touched.

Looking around one last time...Jax stuffed the bandana back in his pocket and headed down the street to the bus stop.

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At seven o'clock Station 51 changed hands. Gold Watch was coming on shift...Black Watch was off for the next forty-eight hours.

The team walked to their cars...headed out to do whatever they had planned for their two days off.

Clarke was busy, at least he planned to be.

He was gonna hit the gym...then Casey said he needed some help on a job, could Jeff use some extra cash? So after a workout he had to get out to Elgin.

He was supposed to meet up with some buddies for a beer...guys he had served in Iraq with...guys he hadn't seen in a while.

Lots to do, he thought as he tossed his bag across the seat.

He turned the key in the ignition...and listened for a minute. Something didn't sound quite right at first...maybe a little rough when the engine turned over? But he decided he was just imagining it as things petered out. He honked the horn and gave Casey a "see you later" wave as the Lieutenant tossed his bag into his truck.

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Jeff pulled onto Irving...not a lot of traffic this morning. He hit the radio and the cab of his Ford was immediately filled with The Boss.

Tramps like us...Baby, we were Born to Run...

The light ahead turned yellow...and Clarke's right foot moved to the brake. He tapped it.

Nothing.

The light turned red...and he put his foot down harder.

Nothing.

He was practically standing on the brake.

Still nothing...and the cars crossing the intersection were getting closer by the nanosecond.

He pulled the emergency brake as hard as he could.

Nothing there either.

'Shit'...he thought. He might have even said it out loud.

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Clarke laid on his horn and steered through the cars crossing the intersection. As he wove through traffic he looked around for a place to go.

He steered around a group of pedestrians crossing the street, and around a bus. A cab started to veer toward him and he blasted the horn again.

Where could he stop? Where would it do the least damage...and not get anyone else hurt or killed? He'd already resigned himself to what he was going to have to do.

He blew through another intersection...then he remembered something. He pulled a hard right on LeClaire...and steered straight for the brick wall of the dry cleaners he sometimes used.

Jeff braced himself for the crash that came a minute later. The Ford jumped the curb, and plowed into the side of the red brick building.

And then everything went dark.


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14**

Ambulance 61, staffed by paramedics Gold and Hassan, raced down Irving Park, through red lights to the scene.

Gold watch hadn't even finished their morning briefing when the bells went off.

"Truck 81...Ambulance 61...single car collision...Irving Park and LeClaire..."

The men turned on LeClaire and immediately they saw the black Ford crumpled against the red brick building. They grabbed the jump bags as they climbed down off the rig.

A civilian came running toward them.

"He just came outta nowhere!" the man said excitedly. "He didn't even try and stop!

Gold automatically glanced at the ground.

No skid marks.

"Okay..." he said. "Stand back and let us do our job."

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Hassan ran around to the driver's side.

"Both airbags deployed." he noted.

The medic yanked on the door handle.

"Somebody get over here and open this door!" he yelled.

Gold, the PIC...paramedic in charge...came up beside his partner.

"Jesus! It's Jeff Clarke!" he exclaimed when he recognized the driver's face.

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One of the Truck guys ran over with a pry bar...and in a moment the door was forced open.

The paramedics began to assess their patient.

"Collar!" Gold yelled.

Someone passed him a C-collar and he slapped it on Clarke's neck.

"Get the backboard!"

Jeff started to stir when Hassan shined the light in his eyes.

"Huh? What the..." he mumbled as he squeezed them closed.

"Easy, Buddy..." the paramedic said.

Then he turned to his partner.

"Pupils equal, round, and reactive to light."

Gold wheeled the gurney close to the crumpled pick-up.

"On three..." he said. "One...two...three..."

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The men lifted Clarke onto the bed and began to secure him to the backboard.

"What's goin' on...what happened?" Clarke asked.

"You were in an accident..." Gold told him.

Bits and pieces were starting to come back.

"No brakes..." he mumbled.

They started to move toward the ambo.

Gold turned to the Lieutenant...a guy named Reid.

"Make sure to tell the Chief right away...so he can get a hold of Boden."

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Severide rushed over to the hospital as soon as he got the call.

He wanted to run. Run into the ER where the whole team was waiting for news. But no...he dragged his left leg as fast as he could. He was ready to rip that goddamn brace off and throw it in the lake.

Clarke had gotten into an accident almost as soon as he left the firehouse.

"What the hell happened?" he demanded as he came up behind Boden and Casey.

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The Chief turned slowly...looking very tired...and suddenly very old.

Every time something happened to one of his men...it was like it was happening to his own flesh and blood. He looked at every one of these men and women as his family...and it was taking a toll. Too many times at hospitals...waiting to hear if one of his own was going to be all right.

"Don't know." he said. "Gold told me Clarke said "no brakes" as they were puttin' him in the ambulance. Witnesses at the scene said he just plowed right into the wall...didn't even try and stop."

Severide wiped his hand down his face. Clarke knew as much about cars as he did. He'd never have waited even a day if he was havin' trouble with his brakes. Something didn't add up.

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It seemed like hours before someone came to give them any news...and it wasn't good.

Jeff had a concussion...a broken arm...broken ribs...and a cracked sternum.

"He's asking for 'Severide'..." the doctor said.

Kelly stepped forward.

"That's me."

"Come with me." the doctor told him.

He led Kelly back to the Trauma Room.

How many times had he been in this room? Alyssa...Capp...and just a few months ago...Veronica. It was all too familiar, the lights, the machines...

Kelly shuddered as he stepped inside.

Jeff was lying perfectly still, and Severide took note of the bruises on his face, the freshly sewn laceration on his left temple...the splint on his arm.

He was getting oxygen through a nasal cannula...and the monitor beside him beeped at a steady pace.

Severide swallowed hard.

"Hey..." he said. "If you didn't wanna cover for me...you coulda just said."

Clarke cracked a tiny, rueful grin.

"You were takin' too much time off...Slacker..."

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Kelly stepped up beside the bed.

"What happened?" he asked.

Clarke shook his head slowly.

"I left the house...got in the car...I thought it sounded a little rough when the engine turned over...but then it was fine so I thought maybe I imagined it. Then I went to brake for a red light...and there was nothin' there."

He licked his lips.

It was hard to talk...he felt like he couldn't get a good breath.

"Emergency brake didn't work...I practically pulled the damn thing off..."

The monitor started to beep faster...and nurses and techs started running into the room.

"Okay...that's enough..." one said. "Sir, I'll have to ask you to step outside."

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Kelly backed out into the hall...just as Casey and Boden came through the door.

"What's goin' on?" Casey asked.

"He said his brakes went out...the emergency brake..."

"Sounds deliberate." Matt said.

Kelly nodded. It sounded like someone tampered with the brake line. But who? Who'd have it in for Clarke? He was a pretty easy-going, keep your head down and your mouth shut kind of guy. He just did his job. He didn't make waves.

"You don't think that girl had somethin' to do with this, do you?" Boden said.

Severide looked at Chief with wide eyes.

He had to be talking about Dorrie.

"No..." he replied. "She's not smart enough to pull somethin' like this."

"She did set her apartment on fire..." Casey pointed out.

"But to screw with a car?" Kelly said. "Besides...isn't she in the hospital? Clarke said they admitted her on a seventy-two hour hold."

Casey shrugged.

"She's prob'ly out by now. The fire was what? Five days ago?"

"Four." Severide said. "I don't think she did this."

But what about that guy? The one she called Jax?

Now_ he_ was another story.

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While the firefighters were in the ER, Jax was parked outside the entrance to the Behavioral Health Center around the other side of the hospital.

He was waiting for Dorrie, and he ran his hand over the silky black leather seat and dash. This was a quality ride...the nicest thing he'd ever stole. Usually he didn't pick luxury cars, cause their owners missed 'em pretty fast. Instead he picked average, run of the mill stuff your typical Average Joe drove to his typical mundane job...day in and day out.

He shuddered with revulsion. Sounded like a fate worse than death.

But since Dorrie was gettin' sprung from the nut house...he figured she deserved a treat.

The retarded girl was kinda growing on him.

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She came running through the automatic doors, and for a minute Jax thought she was gonna smash her face right into the glass. She was wearing the biggest scrubs they could find, and she was still squeezed into 'em like a stuffed sausage. But the clothes she came in wearing were filthy and smelled of smoke and grease from the fire, and there was no one to bring her anything clean.

She skidded to a halt, looking around. She didn't know what kind of car he was driving...she never did.

Jax honked the horn and powered down the passenger window.

"Ya just gonna stand there?" he called out. "Whaddya waitin' for? Get in."

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Dorrie yanked the door open and Jax cringed. The girl was like a one-woman demolition squad...just barreling through everything...no finesse at all.

"I thought you'd never get here!" she gushed. "All that stuff you told me to say really worked! It really worked!"

"I told ya it would."

"Did you find out why Kelly didn't come? Who was the guy that came in his place? Did something happen to Kelly? They didn't hurt him? Did they? Please say he's okay..."

"Will you calm down?" Jax told her. "Jesus...take a breath...my God..."

He handed her a newspaper.

"Here..." he said. "Read the one I circled."

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While Dorrie was reading...and mumbling to herself...Jax pulled out onto Lakeshore Drive.

"Anthony Francis Boungiovanni Sr." she read slowly. "Husband of sixty-three years to Nadine...nee Virgilio. What does 'nee' mean?"

"That means Virgilio was her name before she got married."

"Oh..."

Dorrie started to read again because she had lost her place.

Jax rolled his eyes. At the rate she was going, they'd be back at her place before she finished the damn obituary.

"Joseph...EmmaLynn...and Alyssa..._Kelly Severide_!" she squealed.

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She looked up...smiling from ear to ear.

"He's dead! Alyssa's father died! That means he can't hurt Kelly anymore! He doesn't have to stay married to her!"

"Not so fast..." Jax told her. "It's worse than we thought. Alyssa's brother took over the business..."

"Which brother? There's a lot of 'em." Dorrie wanted to know.

"Ummm...that one...Nicholas. An' he's holdin' Kelly to the deal...that he's gotta stay with her. Or so he says."

"Whaddya mean?"

This was terrible! Kelly was gonna have to stay trapped in a loveless marriage...

"He's really got somebody else he wants her to marry. The son of a major crime family in New York. He wants to make an alliance with the New York crew...and get a foot in the door there. They do this kinda shit all the time."

"So if he wants Alyssa to marry somebody else, why does he want to make Kelly keep the deal?"

It didn't make sense to her.

"That's where it gets interestin'..." Jax said. "That other fireman...the one that came to your apartment? He's a hit man for the mob. And Nicholas planted him on the squad to take Kelly out. And make it look like it's a 'line of duty' thing, so Alyssa gets a nice, fat insurance payment and a department pension."

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Dorrie's eyes opened wide and she squealed in horror...and Jax wasn't expecting it.

His hands flew off the wheel for a second and the car started to veer left. He quickly righted the car before he crashed into a Lincoln.

"Jesus Christ..." he snapped. "Don't do that! You almost made me have an accident!"

He glared at her.

"If you wanna stay on this assignment you're gonna hafta learn to control yourself."

"I thought you said this wasn't a real case. You said you was just doin' it outta the goodness of your heart."

"I was gettin' to that." Jax said. "When I was gone last week...I was in Washington talkin' to my superiors. An' I convinced 'em that we had some new information on this family...that we were on the verge of a major break in the case. An' they want us to move forward."

"What's that mean?" Dorrie asked.

"It means now it's an official government sanctioned assignment. An' we got a lotta work to do. So listen up..."

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He glanced around him...even though they were alone in the car.

"Nicholas took over the mob...and he's even more ruthless than his old man. He's got eyes on your fireman at all times...in fact he lives right across the street from 'im."

"What 'bout the one in the fire department? The one who's supposed to kill Kelly an' make it look like a accident?"

"You don't gotta worry 'bout him...I took care of that this mornin'." Jax said.

"What'd you do?" Dorrie squealed.

Jax winced.

Christ...she could be annoying. And loud.

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"I took care of it." he said again. "He's not a threat anymore. Now...we gotta step up the surveillance. We gotta get a new camera ASAP."

"We can use my brother's credit card." Dorrie said. "The one for emergencies."

Jax smiled.

"Well...here's the rest of the good news. 'Cause this is an official government case...it's all on Uncle Sam's dime."

"Who's Uncle Sam?" Dorrie asked. "I didn't know you had an uncle."

"Not my uncle...the government. The CIA. They're gonna replace the camera. So let's go get that taken care of."

He accelerated and headed back down to the electronics store where they had gotten all the equipment before.

And now some other unsuspecting sap was gonna buy him a present. The credit card reader thing that looked like an IPod was the greatest invention known to man.


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15**

Alyssa was waiting for Kelly when he came back.

"Is Jeff okay?" she asked as she stepped into his open arms.

"It's not good." he answered. "I mean...he'll pull through, but he's gonna be laid up for a while."

He knew what Clarke was going through...and he knew what lay in store in terms of recovery and rehab. Jeff was strong...but it wasn't gonna be easy.

And somehow Severide felt responsible...like it was his fault for bringing Dorrie and her crazy sidekick into all their lives.

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"Hey...do you have the number for Occupational Health?" he asked.

"Sure...why?"

"I wanna move up my appointment." Kelly told her. "I gotta get back..."

"But the doctor said you needed at least another week...two weeks." Alyssa said.

"I don't care what he said. I need to get back to work. Jeff was supposed to be my back-up..."

Alyssa looked up at him and took a step back.

"That's what the relief pool's for. They'll get someone else."

"You can't just send anybody in to lead a Squad, Alyssa." he said, anger and frustration slipping into his voice. "You know that."

"I'm sure they have plenty of qualified men..."

"It's not the same, damn it!" Kelly snapped.

Why did he still have to explain it to her after all these years?

"Lyssa..." he started, deliberately softening his tone. "Baby...it's not like this is a bad injury or something...it's just a cut. The staples are out...it's not like anything bad's gonna happen..."

"Except you could open it up again and be right back where you started." she argued. "Kelly, I know you're worried about Jeff...and your men. I know you feel responsible...but you've gotta give your body time to heal."

She turned away from him and started opening and slamming cabinets...not really knowing what she was looking for...but frustrated just the same at not finding it.

Kelly stared at his wife for a minute. They were usually so tuned in to one another...so in synch...that when they argued, really argued it was like someone turned the hose line on him. Full blast.

He knew Alyssa loved him and he knew she worried about him...but she had to know this was who he was.

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They danced around each other for the rest of the afternoon.

Kelly found the number for the clinic on his own and with a little begging and pleading managed to get an appointment for the next day. He was going back to work one way or another and Alyssa would just have to deal.

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Dinner was a tense affair.

The kids knew something was going on between Mom and Dad...but of course they didn't know what. Andy and Jesse knew it was a fight...and Dad had prob'ly said something he shouldn't have...but both of them were too stubborn to back down. Yet.

Maggie and Lexi tried to fill the silence with their endless chatter...but that got on everybody's nerves real fast.

"An' dey got a new schoo' bus for da 'twansport-a-tion' corner at my school...but it was jus' pwain 'lello..." Lexi was saying. "Borrrr-rrring!"

"School busses are 'posed to be yellow..." Maggie said, rolling her eyes.

"Uh-uh!" Lexi countered. "I gots a pink one in da pway woom!"

"Dat's a baby toy!" Maggie argued. "You gotted dat when you was a even lil'ler baby den you is now!"

"Wexie not a baby!"

"You can' even talk good!"

Kelly set his fork down.

"All right! Enough!" he said. "The two of you...shut it down...right now."

"Daddy!" Maggie protested.

"No 'Daddy'..." he interrupted. "Stop fighting...or no dessert for either of you."

Lexi stabbed a piece of broccoli with her fork and shoved it in her mouth.

There was 'cim-ma-mon' cake for dessert...and she wasn't taking any chances.

She gave Kelly a smile so he'd know she was being a good listener.

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Nadine cleared her throat softly and dabbed her lips with her napkin. Then she turned to her son-in-law.

"Kelly...can you take me home after dinner?" she asked.

Alyssa looked up from her plate.

"What?" she asked. "Why?"

"It's time for me to go home." Nadine said matter-of-factly.

"You don't have to go, Ma..." Alyssa protested. "You can stay as long as you want to."

Nadine had been staying in the guest room since...well...just since.

"I know...and I appreciate it. But it's time to get back in my own place."

Kelly looked from his wife to her mom...and back again. The irony of that statement didn't escape him. When Alyssa had said almost those exact same words to Nadine...years and years ago...Nadine had just about had a fit.

"But why tonight?" Alyssa asked. "You'll be all alone in an empty apartment..."

"It'll be empty whether I go tonight...or tomorrow...or next week." Nadine said.

"Just...wait till morning at least."

"I'll be fine, Alyssa. I need to do this."

She looked to Kelly.

"Sure..." he said. "If you want me to take you...I will."

Down at the other end of the table he heard Lyssa take a quick breath and hold it.

One more thing to be in the dog house for...he thought.

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He carried Nadine's bag up the stairs for her.

"Where do you want this?" he asked.

"Just set it down." Nadine told him.

There was an awkward silence...and Kelly tried to remember if he'd ever been alone with his mother-in-law. Usually there was someone else in the room to act as a buffer.

"Thank you for letting me stay with you and Lyssa."

Kelly shrugged.

"It's the least we could do."

That sounded like the right thing to say...

"It tells me a lot about you." Nadine said. "About the kind of man you are."

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Kelly was puzzled.

"Whaddya mean?"

"I mean...that I know you haven't completely forgiven me. You might not ever...and still you let me stay in your house for past week. That took a lot."

Not sure what he was supposed to say to that, Kelly stuffed his hands deep in his pockets. But there was one question he'd had for a while...something he was curious about.

"What made you change your mind...about me and Lyssa?"

Nadine had been dead set against their relationship almost from the moment she met Kelly. She had decided back when Alyssa was barely out of diapers that she should marry Jonny DiNardo, the boy who lived down the block. He was the only child of her "dear, dear..._dear_ friend" and according to her, Alyssa's soul mate.

The one tiny detail that Nadine refused to see...refused to believe...was that Jonny was gay.

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His mother-in-law grew uncharacteristically quiet...and the ticking of the antique clock on the bookshelf in the living room sounded positively deafening.

Kelly was ready to jump out of his skin with every 'tick'.

Nadine took a deep breath and she began to speak in slow, even tones, like she was someplace far away. And she seemed to actually forget that Kelly was there. She was talking to him...but she wasn't.

"Nicky was the one who told me when you got injured...he said you might not make it. He said Alyssa was falling apart...and he was worried about her. He'd never seen her like that before...she's usually the one telling everybody else it's gonna be all right."

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Kelly nodded...not that Nadine saw. She was still caught up in her own little world.

Alyssa was his rock...she had been since the beginning. When she rubbed those familiar soothing circles against his skin...when she whispered softly in his ear...those gestures soothed him, calmed his fears...and eased whatever pain he might be feeling.

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"I didn't know what to do...I was so sure Alyssa wouldn't want to see me...that I'd make everything a hundred times worse for her."

Her voice got quieter...so quiet Kelly could barely make out the words.

"It took me nearly two weeks to get up the nerve to go to the hospital. I prayed...God, how I prayed, that Alyssa would let me in. That I'd be able to hold and comfort my baby...my _Bambina_. I prayed to God to show me what to do...what she needed. I prayed that I could be that."

There were tears in the older woman's eyes as she looked up at her son-in-law.

"Alyssa loves you so much. She said that you had to be all right...that you had to get better...because she wouldn't make it if you didn't. And she's right. If something happened to you...she'd go on, physically. She'd be there for the children...those precious babies...but she'd die inside. All the things that make her 'Alyssa'...her strength, her goodness, her laugh...her ability to love...those would all go with you."

Nadine took the three or four steps across the room and timidly laid a wrinkled hand on Kelly's arm.

"You're her heart...her soul...and for the first time, that day, I looked at my daughter as a woman...as a mother...and a wife. And I saw...finally...Jesus knows it took me long enough...what the two of you had."

Kelly didn't know what to say.

"I'm so ashamed it took so long...and such a tragedy to make me open my eyes. I hope you can forgive me someday."

He nodded.

"I know you'll do what's right, Kelly. You'll do what's right for your family...for you and Alyssa."

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After leaving his mother-in-law Kelly just drove around the neighborhood...thinking.

Nadine's long-winded speech made him a little uneasy. He was pretty sure she was trying to tell him not to push things with Alyssa and not go to the appointment...but he had to. What happened to Clarke was no random accident. That Jax...whoever the hell he was...was behind it.

Kelly knew it wasn't his fault...but he'd had enough of watching from the sidelines while his men took whatever this nut job was dishing out.

Yeah...it would upset his wife...and make her even more anxious than she already was when he went on shift. But he couldn't sit on his ass any longer.

It was time to go back to work.


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16**

Kelly turned onto Byron with a sense of dread.

He had gotten through his appointment at the clinic fine. The doctor said his leg was healed enough...and had signed off on his 'Return to Work' forms.

And even as he breathed a sigh of relief, it didn't feel right. Because Alyssa wasn't there.

They'd talked when he got back from taking Nadine home. They had talked for hours...and Alyssa finally said she understood this was something he knew he had to do. But this morning she said she couldn't go with him.

As he approached his house he couldn't shake that awful feeling that things were gonna get a lot worse before they got better.

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Declan was sitting on his aunt and uncle's front steps when Kelly pulled into the drive. The twenty year old waved briefly, and then got back to the business at hand.

Kelly came around the side of the house to see what was going on.

"Daddy!" Lexi squealed happily. "Dec-can an' Se-wee-na gonna teach me how ta' wo-wo skate!"

"What?"

He looked over to see a girl sitting beside his nephew.

Declan looked up with a big grin.

"Uncle Kelly...this is Selena Wright. She's studying to be a paramedic."

The girl looked up from what she was doing...adjusting little wrist guards on Lexi's hands.

"Hi..." she said.

Selena was beautiful. She was prob'ly about Declan's age...twenty...maybe twenty one. She looked like she was small...short. And she had brown hair streaked with reddish highlights.

"Hi..." Severide answered.

Then he focused on his daughter.

"How's she supposed to move in all that stuff?" he asked.

Lexi was ready to go...decked out in her little pink skates...knee pads...elbow pads...wrist guards and a helmet.

"Aunt Lyssa said 'make sure she's safe'." Declan said. "And I know_ I'm_ not about to cross her..."

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"Where is Lyssa?" Kelly wanted to know.

"She had to run over to the store. There was a...an emergency."

Lyssa hadn't been scheduled to work today. Lexi didn't have school...and she'd specifically scheduled herself off. In fact, Declan's mom, Kathy was supposed to open the store.

"What kind of emergency?"

What could be so important at a re-sale shop?

"Mom called her." Dec told him. "When she went around the back it looked like someone had broken in. She said the alley door was all scratched up and the lock was mangled."

"What?! Did she call the cops?"

"Yeah...of course. But Aunt Lyssa asked me to watch Lexi and she ran over."

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Kelly turned around and headed back to his car.

"Daddy!" Lexi cried. "Watch me wo-wo skate!"

"Later, Baby." he called over his shoulder. "I need to go see Mommy."

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Kelly threw it in reverse and barreled out of the drive. Fortunately there was hardly any traffic on their block...and five minutes later he was in the alley behind Helping Hands...the store Lyssa and Kathy had opened almost seven years ago just a stone's throw away from St. Pasqual's. If he looked up he could see the top of the steeple and the gold cross shining in the late September sun.

There was police tape strung across the alleyway around the back door and as he ran toward it, Kelly saw his brother-in-law, Nicky.

"Nick!" he called out as he skidded to a stop on his side of the tape. "Nick!"

Nicky was a sergeant for the CPD...the career he'd gotten into after he failed the entrance exam for the Fire Academy.

"Kelly..." Nicky said as he held up the tape to let him cross.

"What the hell's goin' on?" he demanded. "Where's Lyssa?"

"She an' Kathy are inside." Nicky told him. "It's a mess in there."

"What happened?" Kelly asked again.

Who the hell would want to rob a second-hand store? It'd be like holdin' up a garage sale.

Nicky shook his head.

"I don' know much more than you do. Kathy showed up to open the store...and she saw the back door..."

He pointed to the crime scene tech photographing and dusting for prints.

Even from where he was standing Kelly could tell someone had taken a crowbar to the steel plate that kept lock guarded.

"He...they...we don't know how many... got inside...and tore the place apart. Smashed a bunch a' stuff up..."

"What about the alarm?" Kelly wanted to know.

Even a place like Helping Hands had a security system.

"Jammed it somehow would be my guess." Nicky said. "You can buy a thing at Radio Shack...like what they use to jam cell phone signals."

Kelly looked at him incredulously.

"Just like that? Walk in off the street and drop...what...forty bucks? And you got a new career path?"

"Nineteen ninety-five...plus tax." Nick told him.

"Shit..."

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Another officer came to the back door.

"Sarge?" he called to Nicky. "They need you in here."

Nicky stepped toward the shop, Kelly about a step behind.

"He's with me." Nicky told the younger cop when he tried to stop Kelly from entering.

The inside was worse than Kelly thought. Everything in the back room was pulled off the shelves...everything but the stuff on the top.

He glanced and saw the ladder leaning against the wall.

Guess whoever did this didn't want to bother.

Glass from dishes and mirrors and whatever else was shattered all over the floor. Clothing was strewn around...the few pieces of furniture the ladies dealt in were smashed beyond repair.

It looked like a total loss.

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"Kelly!" Alyssa cried as he stepped into the front of the store.

She flew into his arms.

"I can't believe this..." she said as he held her tight. "Look at all this...for what? Less than a hundred bucks?"

That was all the cash they kept on hand. Enough to make change the next day.

The damage up front was worse than in the back. The shelves were smashed...the display case where they kept costume jewelry...paintings were slashed. More dishes...picture frames.

And the POS cash register...which had been a donation from the school.

Kelly didn't know what to say. His blood boiled when he thought of all the work Alyssa and Kathy and all the other women had done to make the store a success. And now it was all lying in pieces at his feet.

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He heard another crime scene tech talking to Nick.

"There's nothing in terms of prints...whoever did this wore gloves."

"What about the camera?"

That's right...they had a security camera out here.

"Black spray paint on the lens..."

"That seems like a lot of work..."

The crime scene tech agreed.

"Detective Simkins over there...he thinks this is somethin' personal. Maybe someone's got a beef with the owners?"

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Kelly kissed Alyssa's hair and disentangled himself from her arms...in order to be next to Nicky when he answered.

"You're talkin' 'bout my wife and my sister." he said. "What kinda crackpot has it in for a couple housewives trying to help somebody less fortunate?"

A portly man with his shirtsleeves rolled up to his elbows and suspenders holding up his pants ambled over.

He was red in the face...a sheen of perspiration covering his forehead.

That's when Kelly noticed the A/C wasn't on.

Bastards must've got that too.

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"I'm Detective Simkins..." the man introduced himself. "Harry..."

"Sergeant Nick Boungiovanni..." Nicky said, holding out his hand.

Then he acknowledged Kelly standing beside him.

"And this is my brother-in-law, Lieutenant Kelly Severide from the CFD. Our wives run this shop."

The detective looked around the room at the crime scene techs bagging and tagging everything that could...uniformed officers were talking to Kathy and Alyssa...and Father Joe, who'd come over from the rectory.

"This feels personal..." Simkins said as he ran a splayed hand through his white hair, making it stand on end in the stifling heat. "Far as we can tell...nothin's missing...not that you _could _tell in this mess."

He went on.

"And it's not like there were any items of value...hell, the cash register cost more 'n everything in the place."

"But there's nobody who'd do a thing like this." Nick said. "The girls are a basically stay-at-home moms...they don't even take any money from this place. Everything goes right back to the church."

"Nobody either of 'em mighta upset...offended? Maybe a jealous ex?"

Nicky shook his head vehemently.

"Kathy's my high-school sweetheart...we been married twenty-five years...there is no "ex" there." he said.

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He looked over to Kelly. He wasn't sure if they should mention Bradley Paul.

Bradley Paul was the monster who'd beaten Alyssa half to death...almost fifteen years ago now. And he was still safely behind bars. He'd tried to mess with her once or twice before...but the last time had been years and years ago.

What would be the point of sending the detective on a wild goose chase?

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"There is somebody..." Kelly said in a low voice.

Quietly he told Harry Simkins about Dorrie and Jax...the restraining order...all of it.

"They've been in here before." he said. "And I'm pretty sure at least the guy's involved...he prob'ly did it for kicks. He's...twisted. That's all I can say."

"You got a last name?" Simkins asked.

Kelly shook his head.

"I don't even know if "Jax" is really his name."

The detective sighed.

Not much to go on...not really anything at all.


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17**

"I thought you were supposed to be on Medical Furlough." Otis said when Severide showed up in the briefing room the next morning.

"Shows whatcha get for thinkin'." Kelly replied as he slid into his usual seat in the back of the room.

He had mixed emotions about coming back today...especially after the break-in at Helping Hands. On the one hand...he was ready to get back to work...to throw on the gear and just _go_...

On the other hand, he was leaving his wife and kids for twenty-four hours when there were a couple of nut cases out there who were convinced he owed the Mafia for gambling debts.

At least his dad was gonna spend the night at his house...there was that to be grateful for.

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It was a slow morning...so after he got caught up on all his paperwork Kelly headed for the common room. Mills and the reliever had the Squad out on the drive, giving it a good washing down.

"Hey...shouldn't you be gettin' lunch?" he said to Mills. "There's twenty hungry firemen in there."

Mills scoffed.

"I'm not gonna have to cook for a month after all that stuff you hauled in this morning."

One thing about having Alyssa and her mother together in the same house...Severide's kitchen had been going practically 24/7 for the past week.

And Station 51 had a fully stocked freezer...with everything labeled "Black Watch...Hands off!"

Severide just laughed.

"You're welcome."

He turned to go back into the house.

"Hey, Lieutenant..." Mills said, as he dropped the rag he was using to dry the rig.

Pete approached his Lieutenant.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Yeah...shoot."

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Mills licked his lips. It really wasn't his place to question authority...but Severide was his friend. They'd served together for fifteen years and Severide had been a good leader...a mentor, ever since Mills came on as a Candidate.

"Are you really okay to be doin' this? Comin' back so soon?" he asked, lowering his voice.

The last time he'd seen Kelly was at the hospital. That was just two days ago...and he still had his knee in a brace.

"Yeah...I'm fine." Kelly answered, stuffing his fists deep into his pockets. "Department signed off on it. Good as new."

"I just...I mean, I get that you're upset about Clarke's accident and everything..."

"What happened to Clarke was no accident!" Severide snapped. "And you don't gotta worry about me."

"Whaddya mean?" Mills asked.

Kelly looked around.

"Just watch your back...that's all I'm sayin'."

He was about to head back inside when he caught a glimpse of a now familiar figure skipping...well...he wasn't sure what to call it. Maybe more like galloping.

Anyway...Dorrie was heading straight for him.

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"Kelly!" she cried. "I'm so happy you're back! I was so worried something happened to you! I was..."

"What're you doing here?" he demanded. "You're not supposed to come within a fifty yards of this place!"

But she didn't seem to hear him.

"I'm just glad you're finally back!" she said again. "I was afraid something happened to you...that those Mafia people might've hurt you!"

Again with the Mafia...

"I read in the newspaper about Alyssa's dad." Dorrie went on. "I'm so happy he's gone...aren't you happy?"

"Why would I be happy about it?" Kelly asked incredulously. "My father-in-law's dead...what kinda person do you think I am?"

"But maybe now you don't gotta stay married to her..." she said. "I know Jax told me her brother was gonna make you...but he wants her to marry some guy from New York...so maybe if you ask he'll let you go! Then _we_ can get married! I started lookin' for houses...an' I found the _cutest_ little one. It's on Patterson...and it's just so _sweet..._and tiny...and it's_ perfect_!"

She barely stopped to take a breath.

"Wait...wait a minute!" Kelly sputtered.

He couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"It's really little..." Dorrie went on. "And once we start havin' our babies we might hafta get a different one...but I really..._really _like this one I found! We can paint it inside...what's your favorite color? Mine's purple..."

"Stop!" Kelly finally hollered. "You're fuckin' crazy!"

He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone...and he dialed 911.

"Yeah..." he said when the operator came on the line. "My name's Lieutenant Kelly Severide. There's an active restraining order on a 'Dorrie Weinhart'...and she's standin' right in front of firehouse 51 on Irving Park."

"Kelly...what're you doin'?" Dorrie asked, confused.

It sounded like he was talkin' to the police...but he couldn't be! He loved her...and he'd never have her arrested!

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Kelly ended the call.

"Did you do something to Clarke's car?" he asked suddenly.

"Who? Who's Clarke? And who were you talkin' to? What's goin' on? I'm scared..."

"Clarke's a guy who works here...he's the guy that came to your apartment when you set the place on fire! Did you do something to him...you and your whack job boyfriend?"

"He's a _bad_ guy!" Dorrie cried, huge tears rolling down her fat cheeks. "Alyssa's brother hired him to kill you and make it look like you got killed in a fire! Then she gets a lots 'a money! Jax saved your life! And he's _not_ my boyfriend! Kelly...I love _you_!"

This story was getting crazier by the minute.

But she just admitted that Jax...whoever the hell he was...had fucked with Jeff's brakes.

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The firefighters had come outside to see what was going on. They'd seen Dorrie lumber in and they'd heard Severide yelling.

Now everyone held their breath to see what was gonna happen next.

"Kelly...who were you talkin' to on the phone?" Dorrie asked again in a trembling voice. "Tell me what's goin' on..."

"You're not supposed to be here." he said cool-ly. "You're supposed to leave me alone."

"But I love you..." she whispered.

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Severide took a deep breath and he was about to blast Dorrie when Shay elbowed her way through the men gathered around the pair.

"Okay..." she said gently. "Why don't we go inside..."

She held out her arm to Dorrie, who followed her like an obedient child.

Shay signaled her partner to take Dorrie...and she turned to Kelly. And once the girl was out of earshot he turned his anger and frustration on her.

"What're you doing?" he demanded. "The cops are coming to arrest her...and you're taking her inside for milk and cookies? What the hell?"

"Kelly, she's confused...she doesn't understand...and she's terrified. And when the police get here it's gonna get worse!"

"She _admitted_ she caused Clarke's accident! Her and that Marilyn Manson wanna-be freak!"

"She said _he_ did it!" Shay corrected. "She probably had no clue. You said yourself she wasn't smart enough to do something like that!"

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She took a step closer to her best friend and lowered her voice.

"I'm just trying to avoid a scene here. Dorrie belongs in a hospital...not in jail."

"I don't care where they put her." Kelly said. "Just as long as she stays away from Alyssa and the kids. And that other _thing_..."

Whatever he was about to say was lost in the wail of sirens as two radio cars pulled into the drive in front of Station 51.


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter 18**

Kelly stood behind the two way mirror down at the 21st Precinct watching Antonio Dawson interrogate Dorrie.

And he wasn't having a lot of luck.

Severide wondered if he had made a mistake in calling the cops on Dorrie. She clearly didn't understand what was happening to her...what she had done wrong. She thought the restraining order went away because Alyssa's father had passed.

She totally believed everything that freak...Jax...had told her.

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"What's Jax's real name?" Antonio asked, for the third time.

The detective was starting to lose his patience. He'd been questioning the girl for over an hour...and he had dick to show for it.

"I told you...Jax is _his_ real name!" Dorrie cried. "An' he works for the CIA! Why don' you call the President? He'll know who you're talkin' 'bout!"

"Aiy-aiy-aiy..." Antonio muttered under his breath.

He decided to try something else.

"Do you know anything about a break-in at the Helping Hands store? The one over on Irving and Melvina?"

"That's the place where the mob washes their dirty money! Alyssa's father set it up! It's all in the secret government computer!"

"Alyssa's father wasn't in the mob..." Antonio said. "He was an electrician! There's no mob connection!"

"It's a cover!" Dorrie insisted. "Jax said he was the number two guy here in Chicago! And Kelly owed him like...half a million dollars! So he had to get married to her or her dad'd make him swim with the fishes! But now he's dead...an' Alyssa's brother wants her to marry somebody from the New York mob...an' he hired somebody to kill Kelly! That guy who crashed his car! He's not really a fireman...he works for Alyssa's brother!"

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Dorrie was sobbing uncontrollably and Antonio looked into the mirror.

He cocked his head to the right, motioning for Kelly to meet him in the hall.

"This is useless..." he said. "She doesn't know anything."

Kelly slumped back against the wall out of sheer frustration. Dorrie was their only connection to Jax...

"She's just another victim in this..." Antonio said.

"But she did set her apartment on fire." Kelly pointed out.

The detective wiped his hands down his face.

"We can't keep her here." he said with a sigh. "I'm gonna call Gabby...maybe we can get her to sign herself in."

Another psych admission...it was better than nothing.

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The radio over Kelly's shoulder crackled to life.

"Truck 81...Ambulance 61...Squad 3...car accident..."

Severide turned and ran.

"Severide responding..." he said into the radio. "I'll meet Squad 3 at the scene."

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He pulled as close to the wreck as he could and jumped out of his car.

Mills ran over with his bunker jacket and helmet...and Kelly threw them on as he ran over to the crumpled mess of cars on Lakeshore drive.

Four...five...six cars...and a box truck. There was steam coming from busted radiators...the smell of fuel leaking...glass all over the road...and a tongue of orange flame snaking out from beneath the crumpled hood of a late model Corvette.

"Get a fire extinguisher over here!" Severide yelled.

He could hear the driver screaming inside the car.

"Help! Help me!" the man yelled. "Help me!"

Kelly tried to get a look inside.

"We'll get you out!" he promised. "Just hang tight!"

"I don't wanna die!" the man cried out. "Get me outta here!"

"Just hang on!"

The hiss of the fire extinguisher blasting the flames made Severide jump...he had been so focused on how he was gonna get inside that car.

"Fire's out." Hermann called to him.

"Mills! Get the Jaws!" Kelly yelled out.

Now that there was no danger of fire...he grabbed the Jaws of Life from Pete's hands and fired it up.

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Piece by piece...he cut into the Corvette...each little bit stabbing him in the heart.

Such a beautiful piece of machinery...it was enough to make any red-blooded American male cry.

All the while the driver was screaming at the top of his lungs.

"I don't wanna die! I gotta get to the hospital!" he yelled. "The bitch tried to kill me!"

"Did he just say 'the bitch tried to kill him'?" Cruz asked.

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The Squad and Truck men were working together to extract the victims...there were at least fourteen...including a mother and her baby in a Lincoln Navigator.

But that Corvette was at the center of the whole mess.

"Get me outta here! I gotta get outta here!" the driver screamed. "I need help!"

"Okay!" Severide yelled as he cut the Jaws off. "Peel that roof back!"

Cruz, Otis and Severide pulled like they were opening a sardine can.

"OH MY GOD!" Otis cried out.

"Is that what I think it is?!" Cruz asked, turning a little green around the gills.

Severide swallowed hard as his breakfast started to make a re-appearance. He'd never seen anything like it...not in twenty-five plus years of firefighting. And he thought he'd seen it all.

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Shay and Dawson swooped in to assess the victim.

"Is that a stiletto?" Shay gasped.

Deeply imbedded in the driver's right parietal region...was a royal blue patent leather stiletto heel. About an inch and a half of it was buried in the poor guy's skull.

"She tried to kill me!" the driver screamed again. "My girlfriend fuckin' tried to kill me!"

"How is he still conscious?" Otis said under his breath.

"I was goin' to the hospital..." the guy said as Dawson began to wrap bandages around his head.

"We've gotta keep it from moving..." she said.

Severide turned and headed to the next vehicle...the one with the mom and the baby. Kids in accidents usually tore his heart out...but Corvette Guy turned his stomach. The mom and the kid seemed like the lesser of two evils at the moment.

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"Does anybody want lunch?" Mills asked when they got back to the house.

There was a rumbling in the common room.

"No...not me...no way...no way in hell..."

Everyone had either seen or heard about Corvette Guy and his penetrating head wound. And nobody had much of an appetite after that.

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"So what was his story?" Casey asked Shay and Dawson when the ladies came in from the apparatus room.

"His girlfriend was under the impression they were in a monogamous relationship." Shay started.

"Until she turned up positive for Chlamydia _and_ Gonorrhea." Dawson finished.

"I'da gone after something else..." Shay said. "I mean...if I was into that...just sayin'."

"She wrecked a four hundred dollar pair of shoes on that asshole." Gabby added.

"Four hundred dollars for a pair of _shoes_?" Cruz asked incredulously.

"Ummm...yeah..." Shay answered. "Tack a couple more zeros on my paycheck...and I'd be all over that."

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Kelly got up to go call Alyssa...his beautiful wife who got upset when she had to spend more than fifty dollars on a pair of shoes...

"Hey..." he said when the call went through.

"You okay?"

Those were always the first words out of her mouth whenever he called while he was on shift.

"Yeah...perfectly fine." he assured her. "What about you? Everything okay at home?"

"Detective Simkins called a little while ago." Alyssa said.

"Did they get anything?"

He heard a sigh on the other end of the line.

"Nope...he wants me to go down to the police station tomorrow and look at the footage the security company sent over. See if I recognize anyone."

Kelly suddenly realized that she didn't know they were focusing on Dorrie and Jax. And he hadn't told her about Dorrie setting her apartment on fire or the two of them showing up at scenes. He hadn't said anything about the restraining order either.

He squeezed his eyes shut and put his left hand to his temple...like he was fighting off a headache.

"I'm going with you." he said.

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Just as he was hanging up Shay and Dawson came out of the common room heading for the ambo.

"Where're you goin'?" he asked.

The bells hadn't gone off.

"Over to the 21st..." Shay said.

"Antonio left me a voicemail..." Gabby said. "He wants us to take Dorrie over to Lakeshore."

Kelly stuffed his hands into his pockets and looked down at the floor.

Where was this all gonna end?


	19. Chapter 19

**Chapter 19**

Dorrie knew she had made a terrible mistake.

Yesterday when she woke up she was so happy. Even though Jax had warned her that Alyssa's brother was after Kelly she just knew in her heart that all their troubles were over now that Alyssa's dad was gone. Kelly could get out of his loveless marriage and they'd be free to be together forever. They'd get married and live in the adorable little house on Patterson...and they'd have a baby right away.

Little Michael...and he'd look just like Kelly.

Of course once their little girl came along they'd have to get another house...a bigger one...

But then it had all gone wrong.

Kelly wasn't happy to see her. He was really mad...he even called the police! And all those questions about Jax? Why didn't he believe her when she told him that guy...Clarke...was supposed to kill him? Whatever Jax had done...he saved Kelly's life!

But Kelly wasn't even grateful. He was acting like Jax was the bad guy.

Didn't he know the CIA was the good guys?

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Those paramedics...the ones who worked with Kelly...they were really sweet. The blonde one was so nice.

But they brought her back to the hospital...and they stayed with her till she signed the papers that said she wanted to stay.

What had she done? She didn't want to be here again...she needed Jax to come and tell her what to say so she could get out.

But he wasn't answering his phone...and Dorrie had left him thirty messages already.

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Kelly and Alyssa walked into the police precinct hand in hand. He could see just by looking in her eyes that she was anxious. And so was he. All of this...everything that was happening was just hitting way too close to home.

Dorrie was a pain in the ass...but she seemed harmless enough by herself. That crackpot she'd gotten messed up with was the one making an already untenable situation worse. All that bullshit he was feeding her about Alyssa's family being in the Mafia and him owing them money. And Jeff Clarke, a hit man for the mob? Yeah...he really looked the part.

If Jeff wasn't lying in the hospital right now, the whole situation would probably be laughable.

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Detective Simkins led them into an interview room and motioned for them to sit down at the table. On that table was a laptop.

"I've got several weeks worth of footage from the security company here." he said.

That was when Alyssa noticed the pile of CD's sitting beside the computer. Her heart sank as she realized they were gonna be here all day.

Kelly felt his wife deflate a little as he put his arm around her so as to pull her close.

"I want you to just scan the images..." the detective said. "Just see if anyone pops out."

"Are you looking for someone in particular?" Alyssa asked hesitantly.

If they had a lead, why not just say it?

"Just anyone who doesn't belong..." Simkins said. "Not your average customer..."

"What does the average thrift store customer look like?" Lyssa said. "We get a lot of people who don't "belong"."

"Let's just...sit down and have a look." Kelly said, leading Alyssa to a chair and pulling it out so she could sit. "Let's just get started."

He knew what they were looking for. Or make that _who_ they were looking for.

"This is like looking for a needle in a haystack." she said.

"It'll be okay." he promised.

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He sat down beside Alyssa and started looking through the dates on the jewel cases.

When had Dorrie and Jax gone into the store? It was before he got cut on that water rescue...before Tony Sr. died.

Kelly selected a disc within that date range and slid it in the tray. He picked up the "remote" attached to the computer so he could scan through the footage faster.

He set the speed to one and a half and with one arm around his wife's shoulders he watched the screen. But he also kept one eye on Alyssa.

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"Kelly...stop." she said. "Right there."

Severide paused the image.

"Her..." Alyssa said. "You remember me telling you about that couple that came in a few weeks ago. The girl was really out there...and the guy...the guy was really creepy?"

She was pointing to a picture of Dorrie. There was no mistaking her. Even though the image was black and white you could tell that none of her clothes went together and the cheap plastic jewelry was the kind you got at a dollar store. The kind even Maggie turned up her little nose at and pronounced "tacky".

But Dorrie's face was half covered by an enormous pair of cheap sunglasses that obviously obscured her vision. She kept bumping into things.

Kelly switched to half speed...and started the picture moving again.

Where was the guy? Where was Jax?

He must have known where the cameras were and purposely stayed away from them. Every once in a while they caught the sleeve of his black leather jacket...and there was a beautiful shot of the back of his head...but nothing that would help them get an ID.

"Fuck..." he cursed under his breath.

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Dorrie couldn't sit still. She tried. She sat on her bed...then she moved to the chair over by the little table...then over to the bigger chair in the corner.

She got up and she paced back and forth. Why didn't Jax come? She'd used up all her money at the payphone down the hall...and her cell phone was dead. She had made a huge mistake coming here and she just wanted to go home.

She took a deep breath and wiped her palms on the pants of the scrubs she was wearing. Then she stood up straight and tall and walked across the room with a purpose. Finally, she opened the door and stepped out into the hall.

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"Are you ready to go back to group, Dorrie?" a nurse asked.

The counselors had thrown her out of group...that's why she was in her room...having a time out. She had tried to explain to them that she didn't need to be there...in the hospital. And she didn't need to be a good friend and listen to crazy people talk about their 'issues'.

But things really got out of control when the counselor asked her why she _was_ there. When she started to explain that it was all just a big misunderstanding...that if they would let her talk to Kelly everything would get straightened out...the lady counselor...who said her name was Gwen, had upset her.

"Dorrie...you violated a restraining order by going to the firehouse...you're lucky to be here and not in jail."

"No...it's all a mistake. Kelly _loves _me! He saved my life!" Dorrie insisted.

"That's what firefighters do." Gwen said gently. "They rescue people who are in danger."

"But he _loves_ me! And I'm gonna marry him! Just as soon as his wife marries the guy from New York!"

"You're hung up on some guy who's already married?" a male patient said. "Jesus...you are a fuckin' retard."

"DON'T CALL ME THAT!" Dorrie screamed.

She jumped out of the chair...she jumped up so fast that it tipped over. She was gonna hit the guy who called her names! She was gonna pull his hair...and scratch his face...and...

Gwen and the other counselor, a guy named Seth jumped up and grabbed her arms. A third counselor ran over to the door and hit the red button on the wall...and four more people came running in.

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Two nurses took Dorrie to her room and told her to sit down and do some deep breathing exercises to calm herself down. That was the stupidest thing she ever heard...and she tried to pull away. Until she saw the third nurse coming into the room with a needle in her hand.

"Okay! Okay!" Dorrie cried. "I'll be good! I promise! No shots! No shots..."

She sat down on the bed and started taking big breaths...just like they wanted her to.

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"Kelly?" Alyssa asked as they settled in the car. "What was that all about? What aren't you telling me?"

He jammed the key into the ignition and turned it hard. He was about to throw it in gear when he felt his wife's hand on top of his.

"Kelly?"

He let his breath out...it turned out to be a much bigger sigh than he'd intended, but he was just so frustrated.

"What?"

"That's what I wanna know." Alyssa said. "There's something you're keeping from me...and I wanna know what it is. You know something about who trashed the store."

"I don't know anything...not for sure anyway." he admitted.

"But you have a good idea."

He sighed again and shifted in the driver's seat so he could get a better look at her.

"I think it was the guy in the black leather jacket. The one who creeped you out so bad."

"Who is he? And why would he do something like that?"

"I don't know his real name...but he calls himself 'Jax'. And the girl with him is Dorrie. She's the one I pulled outta the Honda on the Wilson Street overpass...the one who keeps comin' round the firehouse."

"And why didn't you tell me about them sooner?" Lyssa asked.

"Because both of 'em are a couple bricks shy of a load...more than a couple. And you've had so much to deal with...your dad...the funeral...taking care of your mom...the kids...me gettin' hurt. I didn't want to dump anymore on you." he said honestly.

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But now he had to come clean.

"He's really crazy...like...insane. He told Dorrie he was in the CIA and she bought it hook, line and sinker. Then he made up some story about your family being in the Mafia and me having to marry you in order to pay off some huge gambling debt."

"That's ridiculous!" Lyssa sputtered.

"She's slow...disabled...whatever you're supposed to call it. And this asshole's taking advantage of her." Kelly said. "But that's not even the worst of it."

"How can it get any worse?"

Kelly took Alyssa's hands in his and looked deep into her eyes for a minute. Then he took a deep breath.

"Dorrie admitted that...Jax...was responsible for Clarke's accident. He cut the brake line and disabled the emergency brake. There was nothing Jeff could do...they could've killed him."

"Why in God's name would he do something like that? What'd Jeff have to do with any of this?" Alyssa asked incredulously.

"I think he did it just to fuck with somebody..." Kelly said. "But he told her that Jeff was a hit man for the mob...and that your brother planted him in the firehouse to take me out...and make it look like a line of duty death so you'd get a big insurance settlement."

Alyssa's eyes opened wide.

"That's sick..." she whispered. "What're we gonna do?"

"I've already got Antonio Dawson on it." he said quickly, trying to reassure her. "I got a restraining order against Dorrie about a week or so ago...and yesterday she violated it by coming to the firehouse. So she's locked up in the psych ward at Lakeshore."

"But what about him? From everything you said, he's the one we've gotta worry about."

Kelly let go of one of her hands...and gently cupped her cheek before he pulled her closer to him. He placed a sweet kiss on her forehead.

"I know, Babe." he said. "And I was hoping that there was a good picture of him on that security film. But they'll get him...he's not as smart as he thinks he is."

He kissed her again...and then let her go.

Once she was buckled in, he started the car...and headed for home.


	20. Chapter 20

**Chapter 20**

He wasn't coming.

She just had to face it..._he_ wasn't coming...nobody was coming to help her. If she was gonna get out...she had to do it by herself.

It had been seven days since she signed the papers that said she wanted to stay at the hospital...and that wasn't going very well. She kept getting mad at people and yelling at them. Then she got sent to her room for a time out. One time they locked her in a different room at the end of the hall...one that had soft walls and a window in the door.

But yesterday one of the other patients told her about a 'five-day'. She could sign a paper that said she wanted to get out in five days. And if she behaved and didn't do anything crazy, they would let her out. But if she _did_ do crazy stuff, the doctor would keep her locked up forever.

Last night she asked to sign the paper.

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Dorrie sat at the little table in her room with a composition book open in front of her. When she was in the hospital before, Jax had told her a bunch of things to say so she could get out. If only she could remember them all. She had to think really hard.

If they asked her if she wanted to hurt herself, she should say no. That was easy. If the asked if she was hearing voices in her head telling her bad things, she should say no.

She carefully wrote those things down...in her very best handwriting.

Did she ever see things that weren't really there? No.

Did she think she was someone famous? Or did she think she had super powers? No.

Did she want to hurt anybody...not herself...but anybody else. No.

She had to promise to take all her meds and go to all her doctor's appointments...

This list was getting really long.

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They were going out to see Veronica again.

She had called Alyssa last night...and asked if she and Kelly would come. She said it was important.

Honestly, hauling all the way out to Timbuktu was the last thing Kelly wanted to do. The past few days had been stressful enough...getting cleared to go back on duty...fighting with Lyssa about it...the store...Dorrie.

And the worst part...not getting any closer to finding out who Jax was.

But Veronica was their friend...and she was part of their family.

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She was waiting in the atrium again...only this time she was sitting on a big comfy chair in a corner. She got up when she saw Alyssa and Kelly and ran up to give them a big hug.

The three walked back to the corner and Veronica sank back down into the chair while her guests sat side by side on the couch across from her. Kelly draped his arm around his wife's shoulder and listened while the girls gushed back and forth to one another about how good they looked.

Veronica did look good. Her hair had grown out some more and it looked like she had it colored. It was darker than he remembered with a hint of red. She had her nails done too.

She was saying something about her mom taking her shopping on a day pass a few weeks ago.

"That's really great." Alyssa said sincerely. "I'm so happy for you."

"There's so much I have to tell you..." Veronica said. "I don't even know where to start."

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She reached down to grab a canvas tote bag sitting beside the chair and dug around inside. Then she handed Alyssa four thin books.

"These are for Maggie and Lexi." she said excitedly.

Kelly looked over his wife's shoulder at what Veronica had given her.

They were her Candy Shop Capers stories...stories about two sisters who lived behind their parents' penny candy shop in the early 1900's. Stories she used to make up to tell the girls when she was living with the Severide's'.

Alyssa flipped through them.

"Where'd you get the illustrations?" she asked.

"There's a girl here named Ashley...she's on the adolescent unit and my therapist set up a meeting. We talked...she's really sweet. She wants to get into a program at the Art Institute when she gets out of here."

"Well, she did an amazing job..." Lyssa said. "Look, Kelly..."

The two little girls in the book looked liked Maggie and Lexi...or Maggie and Lexi's great-great grandmother and great-great aunt as the case may be.

"Cute." he told her. "How'd you get 'em put in books?"

"Morgan did it." Veronica said. "He did a self publishing thing...and they're even on Amazon!"

"That's great...that's like what the school's doing with Jesse's story." Kelly said.

She reached into the bag again and pulled out two more books...but these were significantly thicker than the first ones.

"These are for you, Lyssa..." Veronica said shyly.

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Lyssa reached for the new books...and looked at the first one.

The Maiden of the Lake...by Veronica Tabor.

"I recreated the last story I wrote before Trey..."

She stopped mid-sentence and there was an awkward silence.

"His parents came to see me." she whispered.

Kelly felt Lyssa tense at the mere mention of his name...and he felt a familiar burning in his gut.

Lyssa had pegged Trey Wilson right the second she met him. All the pieces had clicked into place and she knew exactly what he was. But it took Veronica nearly getting killed for him to realize exactly what Station 51's former Candidate was really and truly capable of.

"What'd they want?" Alyssa asked quietly.

"They wanted to apologize to me..." Veronica replied. "They said he was a holy terror from the time he could walk...and he would just fly into a rage when he didn't get whatever he wanted. He broke things...he hit them. Once he put his mother in the hospital."

"God..." Lyssa said. "Why didn't they do something? Get him some...therapy...something. Anything..."

"They tried." Veronica said. "They even sent him to one of those survivalist schools you hear about on TV. But he went right back to the way he was the minute they got him home. They were terrified of him. His mother said they had three deadbolts on their bedroom door...she was afraid he'd murder them in their sleep."

Alyssa squeezed Kelly's hand hard.

"I saw them..." Kelly said. "In the court room when he was arraigned."

"Her name is Roni." Veronica said. "His mother..."

Roni...that was the name he used to refer to Veronica by whenever he talked about her at the firehouse. He was sicker than any of them had realized.

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"He took a plea bargain." she said. "Twenty years...he's gotta serve a minimum of twelve."

"That doesn't seem nearly long enough." Alyssa said, a hard edge creeping into her voice. "They should lock him up and throw away the key!"

Veronica shrugged.

"Well, this way I don't have to go through a trial. I don't have to face him in court."

"Is this what you want?" Alyssa asked.

Veronica nodded.

"I just want this chapter of my life to be over." she said. "And that's the big reason I wanted you guys to come. I'm getting out of here next week."

The mood changed in a hurry.

Alyssa squealed with joy and jumped off the couch and crossed the short distance between them to hug Veronica.

"That's wonderful!" she said. "That's great news!"

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But for someone who had just announced something so exciting, Veronica still seemed subdued.

She waited until Lyssa had settled back beside Kelly, who put his arm around her again.

"I'm moving to Seattle." Veronica told them. "I want a whole new start."

"Why Seattle? What's there?"

"I have a good friend from college...and I got back in touch with her. Her name's Sandra...and I'm gonna stay with her for a while. I've made some inquiries at a publishing company out there...so...I'm hoping something will happen with that. If not, I can always get an office job." she said. "But the main thing is I'll be far, far away from Trey."

Neither Alyssa or Kelly said anything.

It seemed like such a drastic step...yet she also seemed at peace with it. Maybe this was just what Veronica needed to heal.

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"Where're you taking me?" Dorrie asked the nurse as he led her down the hall to one of the private rooms.

"You have a visitor..."

A visitor?

Maybe Jax had finally...finally shown up! Maybe he was away on another secret mission!

Maybe...

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"Scott! What're you doin' here?" Dorrie exclaimed when the nurse opened the door. "You're supposed to be in Iraq!"

She couldn't believe it. There was her brother...tall and tanned...his hair blonder and shorter than she'd ever seen it...standing in the private meeting room.

"Whaddya think I'm doing here? Huh, Dorrie?" Scott said, irritation grating in his voice.

He placed his hands on his hips and his green eyes flashed angrily.

"Dr. Feinberg called my company...and they got a message to me that you were in here. That this is the second time you've been here in a month!"

"It's not my fault!" Dorrie cried. "It's all a big mistake!"

"The doctor said you got arrested! For violating a restraining order!" Scott's voice got louder and louder. "Jesus, what kinda mess did you get yourself in?"

He reached around to his back pocket and pulled out an envelope.

"Then...last night...I get home at like...two in the morning...after being on a plane for almost twenty four hours...and I find out about this!"

He ripped a piece of paper out of the envelope.

"I had an accountant friend of mine taking care of my bills...and he hands me _this_! A credit card receipt for almost twenty four hundred dollars...signed by _you_! What the hell did you buy?"

"It was for the camera...and the computer and the photo printer! All the stuff we needed for the secret mission!"

"What the fuck are you talkin' about?! What secret mission?!"

"Jax is investigatin' the Mafia...the CIA wants him to shut 'em down! An' we had to gather intel...an'..."

"What?! Do you even hear yourself?!" Scott sputtered incredulously. "The Mafia? The CIA? And who the hell is 'Jax'?!"

"He's my friend! Once the Mafia people go to jail...then Kelly can get out of his marriage to Alyssa and we're gonna get married! And we're gonna buy a house...an'..."

"Jesus Christ...somebody's playin' you! And you're gullible enough to let 'em!" he said. "And who's 'Kelly'?"

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Dorrie was crying. She didn't know why Scott was yelling at her. She was just trying to help Kelly...help him...and everything got totally messed up.

"Kelly's the firefighter who saved me when my car crashed. He pulled me out before it went over the edge! He _likes_ me! And _I_ love him! And we're gonna get _married_!"

"Dorrie...he's _already_ married! You just said so! Is he the one who took out the restraining order?"

She nodded.

"But he didn't _mean _it! He only did it so his father-in-law wouldn't get mad! But he's _dead_ now!"

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Scott just put his hand to his head...he couldn't believe what he was hearing.

His parents had always said he was gonna have to take care of his sister someday...but he didn't think it was gonna be when he was only twenty six. Not when he'd just landed the job of a lifetime!

Dorrie was twelve years older than him...and when he was little she was so much fun. She always wanted to play, and eat ice cream and watch cartoons...he never needed playmates, cause he had his sister. But as time went by, he started to change. He got into sports...and cars...and building things. He had his friends...and Dorrie was always there...she embarrassed the hell out of him...asking his buddies if they wanted to take her out on a date.

He complained to his parents...but they said they would never, never put her in a home. She had a family...and that family was going to take care of her. They had planned meticulously for it...they made sure there was enough money to take care of her for the rest of her life.

But this wasn't what he had signed up for.

His parents had their way...but he couldn't do it their way. Dorrie obviously needed constant supervision and with his job sending him overseas for months at a time he couldn't be there to provide it.

There was only one answer. She was going to have to go into a group home.

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"Scott...can you tell them to let me out of here? I made a mistake...and I gotta talk to Jax. I called him and called him...I left a hundred messages...but he hasn't come and I really gotta find him. I gotta find out what's goin' on with the investigation an' if there's any more hit men at the fire station cause Kelly might still be in danger an'..."

"Stop! Dorrie, stop!" Scott exploded. "I don't know who this Jax is...or what kind of mess he's gotten you involved in. But you need to stay away from him...and you need to leave that firefighter alone. The man's married...and what you're doing is harassment. And it's _wrong_!"

"You're wrong!" Dorrie cried. "You're wrong! Jax is a good guy! And he's trying to protect Kelly...so he can get away from Alyssa and her family! And I'm gonna marry him...and I'm gonna have a baby!"

Scott opened his mouth to say something...but nothing came out.

"What are you saying?" he asked. "Are you saying you're _pregnant_?"

"I'm gonna have Kelly's baby!" Dorrie wailed before she collapsed into a chair.


	21. Chapter 21

**Chapter 21**

The brass showed up right after roll call.

"Lieutenant Severide? A word?" A captain named Hollister said.

Kelly shot looks at Casey...Shay...and Boden. What was goin' on? He had no clue.

A lieutenant he'd never seen before opened the door to Chief's office and once everyone was inside he stepped in and shut the door.

"What's goin' on?" Severide asked.

He looked from one man to the next. Hollister...to Captain Cressman...to Chief Wrobles.

"What's this all about?"

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Chief Wrobles circled around Boden's desk and took a seat.

He was the highest man on the totem pole...and he was gonna make the most of it.

Chief Boden folded his arms across his broad chest.

"There's been an accusation, Lieutenant Severide." Wrobles began.

"What kind of accusation?"

Wrobles folded his hands in front of him and leveled a pointed stare in Kelly's direction.

"A 'Scott Weinhart' was downtown yesterday...raising Holy Hell. He filed a complaint with the Commissioner personally...and accused you of taking advantage of his developmentally disabled sister. He says she's pregnant with your child."

"WHAT?!"

Severide couldn't believe what he just heard.

"That's ridiculous!" he said.

"So you're denying it?" Wrobles asked.

"You're damn right I'm denying it!"

Captain Hollister stepped forward.

"Do you know Dorrie Weinhart?" he asked.

Kelly looked at the men around him.

"Yeah...I know her." he said. "I pulled her out of a car about the go over the Wilson Street overpass about two months ago."

"And have you had any contact with her since then?" Wrobles wanted to know.

Severide licked his lips nervously.

It was like he was on trial here.

"She's been makin' a nuisance of herself around the firehouse." he said. "Tell 'em, Chief...I had to get a restraining order against her!"

"The Lieutenant's right." Boden agreed. "The girl seems to have developed an infatuation with him."

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Wrobles didn't seem moved at all.

"Well...we'll be undertaking a full investigation into these allegations." he said. "Lieutenant...as of now you're suspended without pay until we can get to the bottom of this mess."

"WHAT!?" Severide exploded. "Are you fuckin' kidding me? You're gonna just take her word for it?"

Kelly's breath was coming hard and fast.

He couldn't believe the Department wasn't even backing him up!

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Chief Wrobles laid his palms on the desktop and pushed himself to his feet...all the while glaring at Kelly.

"Do I need to remind you, Lieutenant? This isn't the first time you've been accused of improprieties? And you'll watch your language...or I'll add 'insubordination' to the charges."

The chief's words...that steely glare...the venom in his words. It was like getting kicked in the balls.

He was reaching back through the mist of time and dredging up ancient history. Stuff that had happened almost fifteen years ago.

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Severide laid his hands on the desk and looked the Chief dead in the eye.

"I didn't do anything..._anything_...to that girl except save her life." he said. "I'm not the same punk I was fifteen years ago. I'm married to an amazing woman...and I've got a family I'd do anything in the world for. I _know_ which side my bread's buttered on...and I'm not gonna do anything to fuck it up."

There was dead silence.

Kelly could hear his pulse pounding...feel the veins pulsating in his temples...he was so angry.

What happened to firefighter's taking care of their own?

Chief Wrobles straightened up...straightened the suit jacket of his Class A dress uniform...and delivered his verdict.

"Lieutenant...you are relieved of your duties here at Station 51...pending the results of our investigation." he said formally. "You're dismissed."

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Severide straightened up himself and took a step back.

"That's it?" he asked. "Twenty-five plus years...and I'm _dismissed_?"

He turned to Boden.

"Chief? Aren't you gonna say anything?"

"Kelly...we'll get to the bottom of this. We all know there's no truth to these accusations."

"Do _we_?" Severide said mockingly. "Cause it's pretty cold out here..."

He turned and headed for the door...and yanked it open.

Then he slammed it so hard behind him the glass rattled.

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Kelly grabbed his keys and his gym bag out of his locker and went out the side entrance to avoid seeing anybody. He threw the bag across the seat...started his car...and roared down the street.

He had no idea where he was going...he just wanted to get someplace far...far...far away. Away from all the lies and the hypocrites. The people who said they had your back...then turned around and stabbed you in it!

He stopped at a twenty-four hour mini-mart, went inside, and grabbed a case of beer out of the cooler in the back. Then as he made his way to the register he grabbed a bottle of Jack from the shelf.

Back in his car, he jumped on 55 and just headed south.

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He just drove. He had no idea where he was going...what he was gonna do. He just put the pedal to the floor and went.

How could this happen? He'd served the city of Chicago for over twenty-five years. He was the youngest man in the history of the CFD to make Squad and he'd been on it longer than anyone. He'd seen hundreds of men come and go and he'd lost some of his closest friends.

The injuries he'd racked up over the years...any man in his right mind would've quit...just said 'I'm done'. But Severide fought his way back time after time because that's who he was. It was hard...it hurt like hell...but deep down inside, like Alyssa always said, he had to go out on his own terms.

Why were people so quick to believe the worst about him? Chief Wrobles and Captain Hollister and all the rest of the brass didn't know him from Adam except for what was in his personnel jacket. Yeah...there were transgressions there...the accusations from the paramedic candidate and Nicki what's her name's father. But those all turned out to be false. The paramedic candidate had a history of making allegations of sexual harassment in order to collect a payday...and Nicki, the girl was a nymphomaniac, quite frankly. She sent him her thong in an inner-office envelope for God's sake!

But what cut the deepest was Boden's reaction...or lack thereof. Why hadn't he gone to the mat for Kelly? After all they'd gone through together? True, they hadn't always seen eye to eye...and Severide had done some things that put the Chief in a tight spot over the years...but what happened to all that shit about 'the CFD was like a family' and 'a brotherhood forged in fire'? Was that true...or was that just something he saved for eulogies?

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The engine began to sputter and seemed to lose power.

It shook Severide from his thoughts...and he looked down at the dashboard. The gas light was on...and the gage was down below E.

Great...perfect. Just perfect.

He steered the car off the road and into a cornfield where it just died.

He turned the key and yanked it out of the ignition...then he tossed it on the passenger seat. He smacked the steering wheel with his hand...and just yelled out of sheer frustration.

Then he grabbed a beer...twisted the top off...and drank.

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Alyssa wiped the sweat from her face as she reached for her phone.

She was trying to clean up the store...trying to salvage whatever they could...see what they'd need to replace. The more she cleaned, the more ruined items she carted out to the dumpster, the more broken glass she swept up the madder she got. What gave this Jax...or whoever did this the right to just destroy someone else's hard work?

She grabbed the phone.

"Hello?"

"Alyssa...Wallace Boden." the Chief said. "I've been trying to reach Kelly all day and his phone just goes straight to voicemail."

Alyssa was confused.

"Why would you be trying to _call_ Kelly?" she asked. "He's on shift...he should be at the firehouse."

There was a moment of silence from the other end of the line.

"You haven't spoken to him?" Chief asked.

"No...why?"

Another long silence...followed by a deep sigh.

"Dorrie Weinhart is claiming she's pregnant and Kelly's the father. Her brother filed a complaint with the Commissioner...and Kelly's been suspended."

"What?!"

"The brass was here this morning." Boden said. "He was pretty upset."

"I'm sure he was!" Alyssa said. "Chief...you know it's not true. You know Kelly would never..._never_..."

"Of course we do." he quickly assured her. "But we've gotta let the investigation play itself out. It's gotta be totallly by the book."

"So where'd he go after he left the house?" Lyssa wanted to know.

It was almost five o'clock...according to what Boden said he'd left in the morning. That meant Kelly'd been in the wind for hours.

"I don't know." said the Chief. "But let me know if you hear from him."

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Severide had shut his phone off hours ago. It was either that or toss it out the window.

He didn't want to talk to anyone. He didn't want to hear the fake concern in Boden's voice...or the very real worry in Alyssa's. He just want to be left the hell alone. The world could get along without him for one stinking day.

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He'd gotten a nice little rhythm going. A beer...a couple swallows of whiskey...then another beer to chase it down.

Things were starting to get a little fuzzy around the edges...but not nearly fuzzy enough. He could still feel the burning in his gut. And it wasn't from the alcohol.

After twenty five years..._more_ than twenty five years...Chief Wrobles had just...dismissed him. After everything he had done...not that he was ever looking for recognition...but still..._dismissed_? Like he was someone of no consequence.

He took another long swallow of Jack...then Kelly reached for another beer.

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He woke up with the sunlight glaring him right in the face.

"AAAAHHHH!" he yelled as the light pierced his brain.

Fumbling above him, Severide managed to pull the visor down, blocking the worst of the glare.

But it didn't do anything for the pain.

"OOOHHH..." he groaned.

He hadn't had a hangover like this in years. His head was pounding like a jackhammer, his stomach felt sour...and his mouth tasted even worse.

And where the hell was he?

Kelly looked around and all he saw was corn fields. He looked across the highway...at more corn fields.

Then he remembered he'd run out of gas.

He groaned as he shoved open the driver's side door and almost tumbled out of the car.

Thank God he didn't run out of gas in the middle of a cow pasture.

The ground dipped and slipped and Severide had a hard time keeping his legs under him as he pushed his body into a standing position. It took another minute before he could trust himself to take a couple of steps...but once he was sure he wasn't gonna do a face-plant in the middle of the corn...he staggered off down a row to relieve himself.


	22. Chapter 22

**Chapter 22**

Now he had to figure out where the hell he was...and how the hell he was gonna get home.

Kelly squinted into the sun as he looked up and down the highway...searching for some kind of marker.

Nothing.

Just his luck.

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His phone should still have some juice in it.

He staggered back to the car and crawled in through the driver's side door. He'd thrown the damn thing somewhere.

It was under the passenger seat in the back.

"C'mon...c'mon..." he muttered under his breath as it powered up.

One bar. That's all there was.

Oh well...hopefully it would be enough. Otherwise, he was walking till he could flag somebody down.

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Now the question was who to call.

Not Alyssa. He'd have to face her sooner or later...but later was preferable. He couldn't deal with the hurt in her eyes or the pity in her voice right now.

Not Shay. She might be his best friend...but he didn't want to talk about what had happened. He wasn't up for explaining why he'd just gone off like he had. And he wasn't in the mood for a lecture about how worried everyone was.

No...the women in his life were out.

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"Casey..." he mumbled when the call finally went through.

"Where the hell are you?" Matt demanded. "Everybody's been calling you! Alyssa's frantic..."

"Yeah...my phone was off."

"Apparently..." Casey said. "Where are you?"

Kelly looked around.

"In the middle of a cornfield." he said.

"Can you be a little more specific?"

"Not really. My car ran outta gas."

"And what am I supposed to do about it?"

Casey was sounding kind of annoyed. He had a right to be. Shay was a basket case...and he'd gone over to Severide's twice last night.

He got that Kelly was upset and disgusted and downright pissed off...he would be too.

But still...the man had a family.

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"Come get me..."

"In the middle of a cornfield? There's only...I don't know...a couple thousand?"

Severide put his hand to his forehead. He had the worst headache he'd ever had in his life...and Matt's sarcasm wasn't helping.

"Just...get on 55 and head south. You should run into me in a couple hours."

Casey sighed.

It wasn't much of a plan...but that was probably as good as it was gonna get.

"Leave your phone on." was all he said before he hung up.

Kelly slumped back in the seat. He had a couple hours to kill.

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When Casey finally showed up with Mills, Kelly was trying again to sleep it off. He'd torn the car apart looking for some water...anything to wash down the ibuprophen he found in his gym bag. He found a bottle in the trunk...but it was hot enough to make tea with. Of well...he thought as he chugged it down. It was better than warm beer.

They brought a couple gas cans full...enough to get to a town or a truck stop. Casey took one look at Severide and tossed the keys to Mills, while Severide wove his way to Matt's truck. After a bit of fumbling with the door he collapsed in the passenger seat. They drove in silence...stopping at the first gas station they came to to fill up Kelly's car.

At a truck stop Kelly tried to eat a bite of something and swallow down some black coffee...but it came back as soon as they got on the road again.

He rinsed his mouth with a bottle of water and limped back to the truck.

"Don't say it..." he mumbled in Casey's general direction.

"I didn't say a word."

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He slept most of the way back to the city...so he didn't have to think about what he was going to say to his wife. Surely, by now, Alyssa had heard what happened...Dorrie...and her brother...and their wild, completely untrue accusations.

Kelly knew Lyssa would back him a hundred and ten percent. She knew he'd never, ever, cheat on her. She loved him unconditionally and she'd always stand by him.

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But the bitch slap from the department was what was impossible to deal with.

Usually with any organization, the guys at the top were totally out of touch with the guys at the bottom...but at the CFD, the brass like Chief Wrobles...Captain Hollister...and all the rest had all started out in the same place as he did. They'd all had to go through their Candidacy...work their way up through the ranks. It didn't matter if someone had bugles on his collar...a white hat instead of a blue one...they were all firefighters, first and foremost. And if their city needed them, anyone of them could grab a nozzle or hustle up a ladder or man a pump.

At least that's what Severide had thought until yesterday morning.

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Casey dropped Kelly off outside his house...and he slowly made his way around the back.

Mills was somewhere behind them with the car. They'd gotten separated a while back. If it got to be too long Casey would come in...but for now he wanted to leave Kelly and Alyssa to work things out.

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Kelly let himself in the back door and picked his way through the overload of toys in the four seasons room. There were way too damn many. Fire trucks, doll houses, books, cars and trains...every toy Fisher Price had ever made...every Matchbox and Hot Wheels set...you name it, the Severide kids owned it. Or so it seemed.

That was a project for his involuntary vacation...Kelly decided. Weeding through all this crap. Turn Helping Hands into a frickin' toy store when they re-opened.

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Alyssa was in the kitchen getting dinner started. It was easy to see her heart wasn't in it...she'd grabbed a jar of her homemade meat sauce off the shelf and was taking pasta she'd frozen from the freezer , along with a loaf of Italian bread.

"Kelly..." she said as she heard the door shut behind her.

She flew across the room to hug him.

"Are you okay?" she asked. "I was so worried."

"Sorry..." he mumbled.

"Can I get you something?"

He shook his head.

"No...I just...wanna be alone."

"Kelly..."

Lyssa reached up to gently stroke his cheek, but he pushed her away.

"Just...leave me alone." he said roughly.

They stared at one another for a long moment...both of them filled with hurt. Alyssa hurt for him. She knew he gave everything he had to the department...and this accusation was a real kick in the teeth. She just wanted to hold him...to tell him she loved him no matter what...and that their family would get through this latest crisis.

But Kelly couldn't hear it right now. He was hurt...but more than that he was pissed off. Twenty-five years...more than that...twenty-six...and he felt like he was on trial as a criminal.

No...he didn't want to see anyone...talk to anyone...not even his wife.

"I'm goin' to bed." he told her.

And he left her standing there as he crossed the kitchen to the dining room...and headed up the stairs.

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He stayed there all evening...in the dark. He even pretended to be asleep when Lyssa came up to tell him dinner was ready.

She probably knew he was faking...because she said...

"Kelly...the kids want to see you. They missed you today..."

But he didn't move. Didn't say a word. And after a few moments she shut the door quietly behind her.

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He was awake when she finally came to bed. He saw the sliver of light underneath the bathroom door and he could hear the shower running. Any other night he'd have gotten up, stripped down, and slipped under the water with her. He'd run his fingers through her long, brown hair...that she'd just begun to touch up to hide the little wisps of grey. He'd slide his hands over her silky soft skin and soap her body with the lemon scented body wash she'd used since the day he met her.

And he'd feel her hands on his body...feel her tender touch as she massaged his back and shoulders...feel all the tension drain away like the soap bubbles down the drain.

But tonight he couldn't. All he could do was lay there and wallow in his own self-pity...and the anger and the shame he felt.

Alyssa was so quiet as she opened the dresser drawer and closed it moments later. Kelly could picture her slipping into one of his old duty shirts that she wore every night as a nightgown. He always laughed at his buddies who spent their money at Victoria's Secret and LaPerla to buy fancy lingerie for their wives and girlfriends. All he had to do was retire an old t-shirt.

The bed barely moved as she crawled beneath the covers and slid close to him.

Kelly bristled as her fingers brushed against his shoulder and he turned over on his side, his back to her. He heard her sigh softly...then felt the brush of her lips against his skin.

"I love you, Kelly." Alyssa whispered. "And I'm right here if you need me. I'm not goin' anywhere."

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The next morning he knew he couldn't hide anymore. But he waited till after Alyssa had left to walk Maggie and Lexi to school to haul his ass out of bed.

He stood under the shower for a long...long...long time. Longer than he had in...maybe ever. All Kelly knew was that he was done feeling sorry for himself.

And as the water pulsated against his chest he decided he was done with the CFD.

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He was downstairs in the kitchen when Lyssa came in through the back door.

"You decided to get up..." she observed.

"Yeah..."

She set her purse down and shrugged off the hoodie she wore in the chill of the early October morning.

"Do you want some breakfast?"

Kelly shook his head.

"Not really. I just don't have much of an appetite."

"Coffee?" Alyssa asked.

"Sure..."

She grabbed his favorite mug from the draining board and selected the dark roast that he preferred to make his coffee.

Kelly halfheartedly opened the fridge and checked the cookie jar, the cake plate, and the bread box on the counter. After a moment he reached back for the cookie jar and grabbed a handful of chocolate chips. He sat down in front of the steaming mug Lyssa had set on the table and nibbled on the edge of his cookie...all the while starring off into space.

Alyssa took a paper towel and set it beside the mug. He took the hint and transferred the remaining cookies onto it.

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She slowly pulled out a chair and took a seat next to him.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

He didn't look at her.

"Physically...I'm fine." he said.

"Kelly...I can't help you if you won't let me."

"I don't _want_ help. I'm done. However this shakes out...I'm done. I'm not goin' back."

"Honey..."

"No!" he snapped. "You're not gonna talk me outta this, Alyssa! I put in twenty-six years of blood, sweat and tears for the CFD...and they just hung me out to dry! The brass! Boden! He didn't even speak up for me! Well...fuck 'em! Fuck 'em all!"

He pushed his chair back and stood up...then stalked out the back door to the garage.

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He stayed out there all day...he washed the mud and the remains of the cornfield off his car. He reorganized his tool box...he raked leaves...and hosed down the slab of concrete they grandly called a patio.

Alyssa went to get Lexi...and dropped her off at Joey and EmmaLynn's to play with Trevor.

When she walked back up the drive Kelly turned his back on her yet again.

But this time she had had enough.

"Hey...Severide..." she said.

Kelly turned around slowly and saw his wife standing there, fists shoved deep into the pocket of her hoodie.

"What?"

"I get that you're hurting, Kelly." she said. "And I get that you're pissed. I'm pissed too."

She took a few steps closer to him.

"I don't take kindly to people spreading lies about my husband." she told him.

"It's more than that..." he said.

"I know. Twenty-six years of blood, sweat and tears." she said. "I've shed a lot of tears myself...and I've lost a lot of sleep over the last fifteen years. But Kelly...don't shut me out like this! We're a team...we always have been."

He didn't say anything. He didn't trust his voice not to crack.

Alyssa approached him with caution, and through the tears welling up in his eyes, he could see she was tearing up too.

She laid her hands on his arms...and slid them up his to shoulders. His t-shirt was damp with sweat from all the work he'd been doing out here for the past few hours. Lifting...moving...anything he could think of to keep his body busy so his mind didn't have to think.

Finally, she loosely linked her fingers together behind his neck.

"Kelly...I know you didn't lay a hand on that girl. I don't understand why they're making up this story...why they're putting you through this. But this _is_ gonna come out in your favor. And whatever you decide to do...I'm behind you a hundred percent."


	23. Chapter 23

**Chapter 23**

Dorrie sat on the table in the doctor's office. She rubbed her hand over her stomach. Over the past few days she'd gotten used to the idea of having a baby..._Kelly's_ baby.

When Scott had first said it...she was as shocked as he was. But now...it just seemed real. It _felt_ real!

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Maybe now they'd let her go home. If she was pregnant, they wouldn't keep her in the hospital. At least not where she was.

The doctors and nurses said Scott had to be wrong when he yanked open the door of the private meeting room and went screaming to the nurses' station. But he demanded that she be examined by a doctor...the kind who delivers babies.

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The door opened...and a doctor and a nurse came into the room.

They didn't look happy.

"Dorrie..."the doctor said. "Your pregnancy test was negative."

"What does that mean?" she asked in a trembling voice.

"It means you're not pregnant."

"Well, your test is wrong." she said. "I'm gonna have a baby. An' I'm gonna marry Kelly."

The doctor pursed his lips together.

"We're going to examine you now." he said. "You need to disrobe...from the waist down..."

He saw the confusion in her eyes.

She didn't know what he meant.

"Take your pants...and your panties...off." he said. "Lay down on the table...and cover yourself with the sheet."

He left the room...but the nurse stayed.

"What's he gonna do?" Dorrie asked.

"Have you ever had a pelvic exam?" the nurse said.

Dorrie shook her head. She didn't know what a "pelvic" was.

The nurse looked at her with kind eyes...and her voice was gentle.

"It can be uncomfortable." she told her. "But it'll be over quickly."

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She helped Dorrie get situated on the table with her feet in what she called stirrups. It was uncomfortable already...lying there like that...and even though the sheet was covering her, she still felt all exposed.

The doctor came back in and washed his hands. Then he pulled on gloves and sat down on the low stool right in front of her.

"What are you doin'?" Dorrie asked. "Don't look down there! It's private!"

You weren't supposed to look at someone's private parts! That's what the nurse at the school always told the girls. Don't let anyone look there...

"Shhh..." the nurse said gently. "It'll be over in a minute."

"No!" Dorrie yelled. "Stop it! Stop it! Don't touch me!"

Then the doctor did something that hurt...really hurt.

"OW!" she yelled. "Stop it! Stop it!"

The doctor sighed and covered her again. And he nodded to the nurse to help her sit back up.

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Tears were running down Dorrie's face, and she wiped her nose with the back of her hand. She covered herself up tight with the sheet.

"Dorrie?" the doctor said. "Do you know what 'intercourse' is?"

She shook her head. She'd never heard that big word before.

"Do you know how a man and a woman make a baby?"

She didn't say anything. She knew it started with holding hands...and kissing...and...

"Dorrie...you're not pregnant." the doctor told her.

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Dorrie looked up in a hurry.

"Yes I am!" she cried. "I am! I'm gonna have Kelly's baby! An' we're gonna get married! An' we're gonna live in a house on Patterson! An'..."

"Dorrie...you've never had intercourse. You've never had sex. There's no way you could possibly be pregnant." the doctor said.

"You're lying!" she cried. "You're lying!"

She began to sob.

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"Dad?" Andy asked. "How come you're not goin' to work?"

This was a day Kelly was supposed to be on shift...and he was sitting in the kitchen...still wearing sweats and a t-shirt. He wasn't grabbing his bag and getting ready to go to the firehouse.

"I'm takin' some time off, Buddy." Kelly said.

He and Alyssa had decided not to tell the kids anything. At least not till everything was over and he figured out what he was going to do. A big part of him said 'forget it'. He wasn't going back...that this was the last straw. But another part was saying this was a load of bullshit...and he'd show 'em. The brass...Boden...all of 'em.

They weren't gonna get rid of him that easy.

Now he just had to make a decision.

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The boys might hear something at school. A lot of kids at St. Pasqual's had parents in the department. This was a cop's and firefighter's neighborhood, after all. They had to live within the city limits...but this little enclave was about as suburban as you could get and still have a Chicago zip code. Actually...it was more like a throwback to another generation. Neat little houses with tidy lawns. Just about every family flew the flag every day. And everybody knew one another. The kids all grew up together and when they were outside playing there were usually a couple parents around keeping an eye on things.

But the CFD and the CPD had more than their fair share of water-cooler gossip so it wouldn't surprise Kelly in the least if word of this latest scandal had made the rounds already.

If that happened then he'd tell his sons the truth.

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Andy looked at him suspiciously. They didn't have a family event coming up. They'd been on vacation in late July. Those were the things Dad took off for. That and when he got injured.

"What're you gonna do?" he asked.

"I'm gonna help your mom at the store...there's still a ton of stuff to do there. And I want to see if Uncle Matt and I can fix some of it ourselves so we can save some money."

But Andy wasn't buying it. Not totally.

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Jax walked out of a pawn shop in Lawndale.

It was one of his 'go-to' places when he needed some cash. The owner was as close to a friend as he got and the guy didn't ask a lot of questions.

He'd been in New York for the past ten days. After the thing with the firefighter he decided to get out of town, so he went to look up a guy he'd known from one of his stints in reform school.

What a joke...that school hadn't worked on him...and it hadn't worked on Reese either. The two of them used to spend hours in the janitor's closet sniffing the cleaning solutions, laughing about the staff members who thought they were actually helping somebody.

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New York was awesome...the lights...the sounds...always going 24/7. And Jax was considering staying.

But then he listened to his voicemail.

Dorrie had gone and gotten herself arrested.

She just couldn't stay away from the firehouse...from Kelly. And he called the cops.

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Now she was in the hospital...again. And she was begging him to help her, to come get her like he did the last time.

He almost said 'fuck it'. Just stay where he was and wash his hands of the retard who was seriously becoming a lot more trouble than she was worth. But there was something about her...and her childlike naïveté. She believed everything he told her...the CIA...the story about the mob. He had just made that up on the spur of the moment...and she thought it was the God's honest truth.

There was something amusing about it. That and she was easy to sucker out of a couple grand worth of electronic stuff.

So he had made his way back to the Windy City.

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It took a few days...he'd stolen several cars...and he'd made great use of the credit card reader he picked up in New York. The thing was awesome. He stuck a pair of ear buds in his ears...and just talked to himself. People thought he was talking on an IPhone. He came up behind 'em on the subway or on the street and in a few seconds he had the numbers of every credit card in their pocket.

Now he'd just pawned a bunch of jewelry he'd stolen from a woman in Columbus.

The dumb bitch had just left her luggage sitting at the bus station outside the rest room. Must've just rolled in off the farm or something. That little make-up case or whatever it was was just too tempting and he just picked it up as he walked by.

It turned out to be a gold mine...some pretty expensive looking costume pieces and a couple rings he was pretty sure were real.

He stuffed the two hundred bucks into his pocket and headed off to look for a car.

Time to go spring the retard.


	24. Chapter 24

**Chapter 24**

Kelly stood up and stretched.

He and Lyssa had been working in the store for hours. She was scrubbing dried shaving cream and soap residue from the huge front window...he was sweeping up broken glass and carting the damaged goods out to the dumpster.

He laid the broom aside and took off the leather work gloves he wore, then crossed the store to where Alyssa stood perched on the step stool trying to reach the top. He came up behind her and with one motion, caught her around the waist, and lifted her down.

She squealed in surprise.

"Ahhh! Kelly! You scared me!"

He set her down and took the rag from her hand.

"Time for a break." he said.

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She looked around and sighed.

"At this rate, I don't know how we're gonna get everything done." she said. "How're we gonna open in a week?"

"Father Joe said he's got teams lined up for this weekend." Kelly told her. "I ran into him when I took the girls to school. And I'll call some of the guys...get them to help with the painting and hauling the stuff from the storage locker."

Alyssa wrapped her arms around Kelly's waist and laid her head against his chest.

He pulled her closer and placed a gentle kiss on top of her head.

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But they were rudely interrupted by his phone going off.

He pulled it from his pocket and looked at the caller ID. Not a number he recognized right off the bat...but a 312 area code. Most likely a downtown land line.

"Severide." he said when he accepted the call.

He listened to whatever the caller had to say.

"Fine...tomorrow...ten thirty. I'll be there."

Then he hung up and shoved the device back into his pocket.

"Who was that?" Lyssa asked.

"Chief Wrobles' office." he said...a hard edge creeping into his voice. "He wants to see me for a formal interview at ten thirty tomorrow morning."

"What does that mean...'a formal interview'?" she wanted to know. "Are you gonna get to tell your side of this?"

Kelly shrugged.

"I don't know." he said. "There's not much to say. I didn't do anything."

"I know that, Honey...it's just...it sounds ominous."

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He had to agree with her. It didn't sound good.

And he only had about twenty-four hours to decide whether he would stay...assuming they weren't calling him in to fire him. Or whether or not he'd tell them all to go fuck themselves.

"C'mon..." he said. "Let's get outta here. We can go home, get cleaned up...pick up Lexi and go out for burgers or something."

He brought one finger up beneath Lyssa's chin and tilted her face upward. Then he leaned in to give her a deep...long...kiss.

Little did they know, that parked in a dark blue Honda Accord across the street, someone with a high speed shutter aimed right at them was clicking away.

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"Jesus, Dorrie!" Scott exploded.

He was furious...with her...with himself.

The other day when she said she was pregnant...he'd gone around screaming at everyone. He attacked the doctors and the nurses at the hospital. How could they have missed this? He went down to the Commissioner of the Fire Department and barged into the man's office demanding that they do something to hold Lieutenant Severide accountable.

He even went to a lawyer.

And then he took her to the doctor. The thing he should have done first.

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"How could you go and say you were pregnant?"

"I am!" she yelled. "You said I was! You believed me...now you're sayin' I lied!"

"You _did_ lie!" he screamed back. "The doctor said you're a virgin! You've never even had sex! How could you think you were pregnant?"

"I _am_ gonna have a baby! I'm gonna have _Kelly's_ baby! And we're gonna get married an' be happy! He's gonna take care of me!"

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Scott turned around and started to walk out of the meeting room. There was no getting through to her!

But as he touched the door handle, his shoulders slumped forward.

And he turned around again.

"Dorrie..." he tried again. "The other day when you were saying you were gonna marry the firefighter and have a baby...I thought you were saying you _were_ pregnant. That you were pregnant right now...not that you wanted to be someday."

Dorrie's face screwed up...he was confusing her.

She was pregnant...with Kelly's baby. She could feel it inside her. She just knew it was true.

"And I went and filed a complaint with the Commissioner of the Fire Department...and I accused that man of taking advantage of you...now I have to go tell him you lied..."

"Wait...what did you do?" she said. "Did you say somethin' to get Kelly in trouble? Is that what you mean?"

"Yeah..." Scott said. "Yeah...and now I've gotta go say it was all a misunderstanding. God...this is so embarrassing!"

"Why'd you get Kelly in trouble?" Dorrie cried. "What if he thinks it was my fault? What if he gets mad at me?"

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Scott was losing his patience again.

Didn't she understand anything?

Their mother had coddled her and treated her like a little child...and now Scott remembered an old argument he had overheard his parents having. His mother wouldn't let Dorrie attend a sex ed. class at the adult daycare she used to go to. And his father thought she should. They had argued for weeks...and finally his dad had just thrown up his hands and said 'Fine...do what you want.' and 'This is gonna come back an' bite you in the ass one day!'

Well...it didn't bite _them_, but it sure got him in the end.

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"Dorrie...wake up! You don't have a relationship with this man! He saved you cause it's his job! That's what he gets paid to do! He doesn't _like_ you! He's not in love with you...he's not gonna marry you...and you're _not _gonna have a baby, cause you've never had sex!" he yelled.

"SHUT UP SCOTT!" Dorrie screamed. "You're just sayin' that to be mean! Mom doesn't like it when you're mean to me!"

"Mom's not here! She's dead! Dad's dead! It's just you and me!" he screamed back. "And I'm done! I can't handle this anymore! You obviously can't take care of yourself...and I'm not gonna be saddled with you for the rest of my life!"

The air seemed to vibrate with tension as the siblings glared at one another...both trying to catch their breath.

"You're gonna have to go into a group home." he said quietly. "There's no other way."

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The next morning Kelly reaching into the back of the closet for his dress uniform.

Today was that 'formal interview' with the brass.

Alyssa came into the bedroom. She'd just gotten back from walking Maggie and Lexi to school.

"Kelly?" she asked. "Do you want me to go with you?"

"There's nothin' you can do there..."

"I know. I know I can't go in there." she said. "But if you want me around for moral support..."

That was a good question.

Kelly was nervous. Nervous as he'd ever been about a meeting downtown. One the one hand, he'd like Alyssa to be there...even if she just sat downstairs in the lobby. At least she'd be close by.

But on the other hand...this was department business. And there was a chance it could get ugly. He didn't want his wife around that.

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He laid his suit over the footboard and crossed the bedroom in just a few steps.

Alyssa was hugging herself like she was cold...and she only did that when she was nervous or afraid.

He held out his arms and she stepped into his embrace.

"I know you wanna be there for me, Babe..." he said, placing a kiss on the top of her head. "But I'll be okay. Mouch is gonna meet me down there..."

At ten-thirty last night he'd given the former Union rep a call...and Mouch agreed to meet him at the CFD's main offices.

Lyssa nodded. She was glad he wasn't gonna be alone.

"I love you..." she said. "You make sure and call me the second it's over."

Kelly kissed her again.

"I will."

Now he just had to figure out what he was going to say.

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He paced nervously in the ante-room outside the all conference rooms.

"Would you try and relax?" Mouch said. "You don't wanna let them see you rattled."

Good advice...not so easy to follow.

"Whaddya think they're gonna ask me?"

Mouch shrugged his shoulders non-committally.

"Your version of the events." he replied. "Stick to what's documented in the reports. Don't offer anything extra. The after-action report from the original incident...the incident report after the aqueduct rescue...the restraining order...the incident report after she was arrested for violating that restraining order..."

"What about Clarke's car? And the store?" Kelly brought up. "Doesn't that show some kinda pattern?"

But Mouch shook his head.

"You can't prove she had anything to do with any a' that."

"Not her...that nut job she buddied up with..."

"Again...where's the proof." Mouch told him. "They're on a fishing expedition. Don't give 'em anything that's not on paper."

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There was a knock on the door.

"Dorrie?" the nurse said as she stuck her head inside. "There's someone here to see you."

"Who?" Dorrie asked.

She hadn't left her room since she and Scott had that big fight. They had been screaming at each other in the private meeting room and the nurses and the doctor and even the security guard had to come and tell 'em to stop. The doctor had taken Scott to his office to talk...and the nurses and the security guard had walked her back to her room.

"He didn't give his name. He just said he was a friend and that you'd called him."

Jax!

He was the only person she'd called! But that was like...two...no, three...weeks ago.

Where had he been all this time?

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She practically ran down the hall. She didn't even stop when she ran into the door to the private room.

The nurse waved her badge in front of the sensor on the wall and the door beeped.

Dorrie nearly tore it off its hinges in her hurry to her inside.

"Jax!" she cried. "Where've you been? I thought you were mad at me or somethin'! I left...like...a thousand messages! An' I ran out the battery in my cell phone! An'..."

"Jesus...take a breath already!"

She stopped mid-sentence and took a big gulp of air.

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He shook his head.

"I got called to Washington for a briefing on the investigation." he said. "Apparently some of Alyssa's brothers don't like the direction Nicholas wants to take 'em...and it looks like they're gearing up for an all out war to challenge him for control of the family. It's big stuff!"

"Oh my God!" Dorrie gasped. "That sounds bad! Could Kelly get hurt in the war?"

"That's a big question." Jax replied. "Remember, Nicholas wants Alyssa to marry the son of some mobster in New York to unite the families. I had to spend a little time out there...to get some intel."

"So what'd you find out? Is Kelly in danger?"

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Jax stepped closer to her and lowered his voice.

"Nicholas is scrambling to get someone in the firehouse so he can take him out. But the other brothers are trying to stop the hit with one of their own." he said. "So, yeah...there's a good chance Kelly could get caught in the crossfire."

Dorrie's hands flew up to her mouth.

"Jax, we gotta help him! I gotta warn him!" she said in a trembling voice. "But my brother...he came back...an' he's real mad at me! He says he's gonna put me in a group home!"

Jax grabbed her by the arms.

"We can't let that happen!" he said. "We can't let anything compromise our mission."

"But what 'bout Scott? He hadda go to his office in San Diego to do somethin'...but he said he's comin' back to find a place for me!" she whined. "Jax...I don' wanna go to a group home an' live with people I don' know! What if they're mean? My mom said I'd never hafta go to a place like that!"

"Relax, will ya?" Jax told her. "I got you outta here before, didn't I? Now...I want you to tell me everything that's gone on here..."

Dorrie nodded and wiped hand across her nose and then dragged it across her cheeks to wipe away the tears.

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Kelly and Mouch stood in front of the table where Chief Wrobles, Captain Hollister, Captain Cressman and the mystery Lieutenant Kelly'd never seen before sat like they'd been carved in stone.

The CFD's very own version of Mount Rushmore...Severide thought to himself. Cross that off his list of things to see...

"Lieutenant Severide..." Chief Wrobles began, "the charges against you have been dropped."

"What?" Kelly said, not certain if he'd heard right.

"The charges have been dropped." the Chief repeated. "Mr. Weinhart called yesterday. Apparently there was some sort of misunderstanding...and his sister's not pregnant after all."

"WHAT?!" Kelly said again, his voice rising several decibels. "A misunderstanding? That's what you're callin' this? You suspend me without pay..."

"You'll be compensated for the days you were off..." Captain Hollister interrupted.

"That's not the point!" Severide spat.

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But before he could go any further, he felt Mouch squeeze his right elbow.

"We'll expect a formal letter of apology in Lieutenant Severide's file." Mouch said. "And of course his back pay to be issued forthwith."

"And who are you?" Wrobles asked.

"Firefighter Randy McHolland, retired." Mouch said. "I was the Lieutenant's Union Rep for a number of years...and I'm here as a friend."

The brass looked at one another.

"All right." Wrobles said, not wanting to draw this out any longer than he had to. "The Lieutenant will return to duty for his next shift...forty-eight hours from now. At which time the letter you requested will be ready to be placed in his file...and the department will cut a special check to cover the back pay. Now...we'll consider this matter resolved. Unless there's anything you'd like to add..."

Oh, Severide wanted to add something all right!

But Mouch squeezed his arm again.

"No...I think we're done here."


	25. Chapter 25

**Chapter 25**

There wasn't much time to think over the next couple days.

After the hearing...meeting...whatever they were calling that sham...it was all hands on deck to get Helping Hands ready to reopen.

For two days, the entire family, biological and firehouse scrubbed, cleaned, primed, painted, hung shelves, buffed floors, hauled in merchandise and stocked the place to the rafters. The girls arranged everything into sections, created displays, and made it look like an artsy, eclectic, little boutique rather than a second hand store.

Everything had to be ready for Tuesday.

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Originally, Alyssa wanted to just re-open on Monday and go about business as usual. They could hold an event in another month or so...something to focus on the good work they were doing and not call any more attention to the break in.

But Kelly put his foot down. He insisted she had to wait until Tuesday...when he wasn't on shift.

Now that the whole unpleasantness with Dorrie's non-existent pregnancy was past, he was ready to get back to work. He thought about it after the hearing...meeting..._thing_...and his Irish temper and stubborn streak had kicked in.

There was no way a couple of whack jobs were gonna dictate his career.

He had his back pay...the department was issuing a formal apology...Dorrie was locked up at Lakeshore.

Unfortunately Jax was in the wind. No one knew who he was, let alone where he was. And that was a problem.

So Kelly was going to be there when Alyssa was in the store. If Jax wanted to try something he'd have go through Severide.

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"Sit down Dorrie." Dr. Feinberg said.

Dorrie took a deep breath and walked calmly to the couch in the doctor's office. This was an important session. This was the fifth day from when she had signed the paper saying she wanted to get out of the hospital.

This was really the second one she'd signed. The first time had been before Scott came back and started all the trouble with Kelly. And after the fight she had with her brother...well, the doctor told her there was no way she would get out. He'd take her to court and then she'd have to stay in the hospital till he decided she was okay to leave.

So she might as well forget it.

And she signed another paper saying she changed her mind.

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But then Jax had come back. And he said there were big things happening with Kelly and Alyssa and her brothers fighting for control of the Mafia. He said that Kelly could get hurt in all the fighting...and she had to warn him.

After all...she was going to have his baby.

It didn't matter that everybody said it was impossible for her to be pregnant. They said you had to do really disgusting things when you were naked. Why would anybody want to wrestle around naked? Eeewww...everybody had to be lying.

She knew she had Kelly's baby inside her. And once she told him, he'd believe her. He'd be so happy that he'd leave Alyssa and they could run away...far, far away from the Mafia and Chicago. He could just be a firefighter in another city...in another state. But he'd be safe and they'd live happily ever after.

But first she had to get out of the hospital.

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"How have things been going?" Dr. Feinberg asked.

"Good."

"Have you been participating in all your groups?"

"Uh-huh."

That was real important, Jax said. Even though they were stupid and the people a bunch of losers and freaks, the doctors and everybody wanted to know you were participating.

"Any...difficulties?"

Dorrie shook her head.

All week long she had been sitting on her hands and biting the insides of her cheeks so as not to go off on Michelle...the girl who thought every man in Chicago had molested her...or Trish who's ex-husband beat her up all the time and said he was gonna kill her...so she tried to kill him first. Those two in particular talked and talked and talked about their "issues" until Dorrie just wanted to scream at them to shut up.

"And what about your brother?"

"What about Scott?"

"Have there been any problems there?"

Again, Dorrie shook her head.

"No...he had 'ta go away for his work again. I don' know when he's comin' back."

"He talked to me about finding some kind of assisted living arrangement for you." the doctor said carefully, watching her reaction. "How do you feel about that?"

This was a trap. Jax had warned her about this kind of thing.

The doctor was trying to push her buttons...to get a rise out of her. If she blew up, then it was game over.

She took a deep breath and let it out slowly...counting one...two...three...four...five...

"I don't think I'd like that." she said calmly. "My parents never wanted me to go to a place like that...an' that's why I took those classes at Turning Point. So I could learn to take care a' myself."

"And do you think you're doing a good job at that? You started a fire in your apartment."

Another trick...be careful...she thought to herself.

"That was a accident." she told the doctor. "I musta put too much oil in the pan...and maybe I had the flame too high. But I called 911 an' the firemen came to put it out."

They had taught her that in those classes. Call 911 in an emergency.

Then the doctor came to the big question.

"And what about the idea of you being pregnant?" he asked seriously. "Do you still believe that's true?"

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Severide arrived early at the firehouse and he was changing out in the locker room when Otis and Cruz barged in laughing and elbowing one another like a couple of teenage punks.

They stopped dead in their tracks when they saw the Lieutenant.

"Hey..." Cruz said. "Welcome back, Lieutenant."

"Everything...worked out okay?" Otis asked uncertainly.

Neither one had made it to the store over the weekend to help out. Otis had a family obligation and Cruz said he was under the weather.

So they hadn't heard the latest.

Severide's back stiffened up and he set his jaw in a firm line.

"Yeah...it's all good."

The two firefighters looked at one another.

What could possibly be 'good' about the situation Severide had found himself in? They both knew he hadn't done anything...but when the brass came down breathing fire...no...nothing 'good' about that.

"So what...uh..." Otis began.

Was there a delicate way to put the question?

If you didn't knock her up, who did?

Severide slammed his locker and the 'clang' reverberated through the empty room.

"She's not pregnant." he said. "False alarm. An' I just wanna forget the whole thing ever happened...so can we just drop it right now?"

False alarm?

"Uh...sure." Cruz replied. "No problem. Good to have ya back."

Kelly left the locker room and Cruz and Otis looked at one another.

"What the hell?" Otis whispered.

"Just leave it..." Cruz said under his breath. "We'll get the dirt from the girls later."

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But they never had a chance.

"Engine 51...Truck 81...Ambulance 61...Squad 3...residential fire..."

The trucks sped through the city streets to Pensacola Avenue.

"Isn't this a little out of our territory?" Newhouse asked.

The address was a little north and west of Station 51's usual boundaries. This was in Station 79's neighborhood.

"Must be a big one..." Mills said.

"Or they need us to show 'em how it's done..." Severide quipped.

But he had a sick feeling Mills was probably right on the money.

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They pulled up to 5150 and as Severide jumped down from the rig he knew his hunch was right. The white frame house was completely engulfed in flames...and it had spread to 5154 right next door.

"Severide...you and your men make sure the second structure is clear!" Boden yelled.

"Copy that."

The first place was too far gone.

What could have caused a blaze like that? Gas explosion?

No time to figure it out now...

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"Teams of two!" he ordered. "Newhouse, with me. We'll take the upstairs. Mills and Tony, you guys take the main floor."

Squad 3 pulled their masks into place and headed into the house.

There was smoke...but not a whole lot of flame inside. The fire hadn't made it completely through the walls.

Severide and Newhouse charged up the stairs.

"Fire Department! Call out!" Severide hollered.

He heard a scream.

"Help!" a female voice yelled. "In here!"

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The firefighters ran into a bedroom toward the rear of the house.

"My father!" the woman yelled. "I can't get him!"

There was a man...lying in a hospital bed...tethered to a ventilator by a tracheostomy tube.

"Mills! Tony!" Kelly hollered over the radio. "What's your status down there?"

"All clear, Lieutenant!" Mills voice came back.

"Then get up here! Rear bedroom! We got a victim on a vent, a woman and two kids!"

Newhouse had already grabbed two toddlers who were hanging onto the woman's legs and he was on his way out the door as soon as Mills and Tony appeared at the top of the stairs.

"Chief!" Severide yelled. "Make sure the medics are ready with an ambu bag!"

Tony reached out for the woman and put his arms around her. He started leading her to toward the door.

"Dad! Daddy! Daddy!" she yelled.

"We'll get 'im!" Severide said.

Now the question was how.

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"You know how to unhook that thing?" he asked Mills.

The smoke was getting thicker...they didn't have much time.

Mills studied the machine for a few precious seconds...then he yanked off his gloves and reached for the valve on the trach. He detached the man from the machine and in one swift motion he and Severide swept the victim up, blankets and all.

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They scrambled down the stairs as fast as they could and burst through the front door.

In just the few minutes they'd been inside the house the number of first responders at the scene had doubled. There must have been three...no...four companies, half a dozen ambulances, and about a dozen cop cars.

And the news crews. God forbid you leave them out. ABC...NBC...CBS...WGN...FOX...all present and accounted for.

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Shay and Dawson came rushing forward with the gurney, and Severide and Mills laid their victim down. Shay quickly attached the ambu bag to the trach and inflated the cuff. Then they rushed their patient to the waiting ambulance.

"Mills...go with 'em." Kelly told him as he pulled off his mask. "We got this..."

"Okay..."

And he hopped in the back with Dawson as Shay jumped behind the wheel.

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Kelly shrugged off his SCBA tank and made his way through the throngs of firefighters, cops and paramedics to the back of Ambulance 64. The young woman was sitting in the rear with an oxygen mask over her nose and mouth. One of the paramedics was checking the two kids, a boy and a girl. They looked about the same age...they were prob'ly twins.

"Hey..." Severide said to the paramedic checking the woman's breath sounds. "How's she doin'?"

"Some soot around the airway...pulse ox in the low nineties. We're gonna run her in."

"Can she talk?" he asked.

"Don't make it a long conversation." the medic told him before he moved on to help his partner assess the children.

Kelly pulled his gloves off and stuffed them into his helmet, then pushed his hood back.

"Hey...your dad's on his way to the hospital." he said to the woman. "They're gonna take care of 'im."

The woman nodded...and she pulled the mask away from her face.

"Thank you." she said...but it ended in a harsh sounding cough.

The paramedic was by her side in an instant, fitting the mask back over her nose and mouth.

"That's enough for now." he said. "We're about ready to pull out."

"You take care." Kelly told her.

Then he went to see what else needed to be done.

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Dorrie walked out the front door of the Behavioral Health Center at Lakeshore.

She wanted to run...but the nurse and the security guard who had brought her down were watching. So she took careful, casual steps all the way to the silver Accord waiting with its passenger door open.

"What took you so long?" Jax demanded when she closed the door.

"They were takin' forever!" she said. "I thought maybe they changed their minds!"

"Did ya say everything like I told you?" he asked.

"Yes!" she insisted. "Just like we practiced."

He nodded.

"Jus' don't go pullin' shit like this again." he said. "Cause I'll leave your ass there next time."

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Dorrie changed the subject.

"What's goin' on with the case?" she wanted to know. "Did the brother hire another hit man? When can I see Kelly? I gotta talk to 'im...I gotta let 'im know he might still be in danger!"

"Whoa...just wait a minute." Jax cut in. "We gotta be smart about this. We need to watch closely...make sure we identify all the players...so we know exactly who we're dealin' with."

Just then a cop car pulled up behind him. And he made a careful turn onto Adams, hoping the cop would go straight through.

Thank God.

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"Where're we goin'" Dorrie asked. "This isn't the way to my 'partment."

"You can't go back there!" Jax blurted out incredulously. "What happens when your brother comes back?"

"Then where am I gonna stay?" she said.

"You're movin' in with me." he said emphatically. "We've gotta ratchet up the pressure on the case. My superiors in DC expect a quick resolution here...an' we gotta come through. They been tryin' to bust up this family for twenty years...an' we've gotten closer than they ever did in just a few weeks."

Dorrie's chest puffed up with pride.

Something big was gonna happen soon with the case.

She just knew it.

Jax would arrest Alyssa's brothers and hand 'em over to the President.

Kelly would run up to her and kiss her and hug her and thank her for saving him.

And she could just imagine the look on Scott's face when he realized she had been telling the truth all along.


	26. Chapter 26

**Chapter 26**

Alyssa burst out laughing as Kelly pulled a t-shirt over his head.

"What?" he asked.

"You might as well have 'Security' printed across your chest." she told him.

The thin black material hugged the toned muscles in his chest and showed every ripple in his abs. And the short sleeves didn't quite make it over his biceps, making them look even bigger than they already were.

"Are you sure you didn't get one of the twins' shirts by mistake?" she teased.

He tugged at the sleeves, giving himself a little more room to move.

"Hey..." he growled. "I'll have you know 'chicks dig firefighters'."

He crossed the room in a couple of long strides and grabbed her around the waist, pulling her close against the aforementioned toned chest.

"Where'd you hear a thing like that, Severide?" she asked with a wicked gleam in her eye.

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The store actually did a brisk little business for the first day. All women...mostly from the neighborhood. But they had a couple social workers come in with clients getting household items...clothes for job interviews...whatever they needed.

And the entire city, it seemed, was abuzz with news.

"Did you hear what they found in that house over on Pensacola?" one of the neighbors whispered conspiratorially to Alyssa over the counter.

Kelly was perched on a stool, leaning against the wall, resting his eyes.

At the mention of Pensacola...the scene of that horrendous fire yesterday...they flew wide open.

"They found a body..." the woman was telling Alyssa. "In the basement behind the furnace."

A cover-up fire...Kelly thought.

It was burning out of control when Station 51 arrived...and they were the backup company. He'd assumed the team from 79 had done the search...but there probably wasn't time. If that house was going like that when they arrived...going in would have been suicide.

So now the city had a mystery on its hands.

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"This is where you live?" Dorrie asked as Jax led her into the basement of a rundown house.

"For now..." he said.

"But the signs out front said you're not supposed to go in here."

"That's part of the cover." he told her. "It's perfectly safe."

There were signs on the chain link fence and in the front windows that said "No Trespassing" and "Condemned by the City of Chicago Housing Authority".

"I have to move around a lot..." Jax said. "I can't have one permanent address."

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He turned a bare bulb on in a dank corner room.

Against one wall was a filthy mattress and there were some metal dairy crates. There were papers and fast food wrappers tossed all around and there was a crack in the one window in the place...high up on the wall.

The walls and floors were concrete...and there was a crack in one wall that leaked water. Just a little trickle...but enough.

"This is your room." he said. "There's a bathroom over there."

Dorrie went to look.

There was a concrete laundry sink like her mom used to have in the basement of their old house. But when she tugged on the handle to turn it on...nothing happened. She edged over to the toilet, just sitting in the middle of the room.

"There's no water in the toilet." she told him. "How're you supposed to flush."

"Don't worry 'bout it." Jax said with a wave of his hand. "C'mon...we gotta get to work."

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"Kelly...it's time to go get Lexi." Alyssa said.

"Didn't you get Kathy or EmmaLynn to do it?"

"No...you're here...so..."

"I'm not leavin' you here all by yourself." he said.

Alyssa sighed in exasperation.

"Then I'll go get her." she said as she reached into the cabinet below the counter for her purse. "You can watch the store."

"Alyssa! We've got no idea where that walking freak show is! They could be outside right now..."

"Kelly...the longer we stand here arguing...Lexis's gonna be upset if she thinks we forgot her."

"Fine." he said. "If you see anything weird...you call 911."

"Kelly Severide...I'm not one of the kids." she replied tersely. "I can take care of myself. Now will you please go get our daughter?"

When he stepped out the front door and onto Irving Park he vowed to make this the fastest pick up in history.

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Dorrie poked around Jax's house.

He had to go out and meet with one of his CI's, he said. He'd be back in a few hours.

She'd asked why she couldn't go too...but he said that she'd prob'ly spook the guy and blow the whole thing.

So she stayed behind.

This house was scary. And dirty. And a lot of things looked like they were about two seconds from falling down. It didn't look like a place anybody could live. And Jax was a person with a job for the government.

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She crept up the stairs of the dark, dank basement to what she guessed was the main floor.

There was a kitchen...but it looked like it hadn't been used in a long time. She opened the refrigerator and slammed it shut in a hurry.

She wasn't sure what was in there, but from what she saw it was black inside and smelled really bad. Some of the doors were falling off the cabinets, and some were gone all together. The floor was cracked and peeled up...and the sink had a red streak against the white surface.

There was a bathroom with no door...and no water in the toilet. Just like the other one downstairs.

She wandered into a little room, and stopped short when she bumped her shin against a cardboard box.

Dorrie peered into the dark room...and all she was able to make out were piles of boxes...so many she didn't take time to count them. There were big ones and small ones...and she thought she could see pictures of televisions on some of the bigger ones.

What could Jax be doing with all this stuff? Was it part of the investigation? Or something else?

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She went further down the hall into what she guessed was a living room or maybe it had been a dining room. There was a banged up table in there with two huge backpacks on it. The backpacks were open and there was jewelry and silverware spilling out.

The windows were boarded up but there was a more light in here than in any other room she'd been in and Dorrie picked up a heavy silver box. She carried it to the window and looked at it very carefully.

It was old...like something her grandma might have had. And it was beautiful. It was circle shaped and it had four tiny feet sticking out of the bottom. When she opened the lid she saw it was lined with faded red velvet...and inside were a pin and four rings.

She returned the box to the table and started going through the things inside the backpack.

She pulled out a hairbrush...again, very old. Very fancy. The bristles were yellow with age and they were very soft. How were they supposed to get through your hair?

Dorrie set the brush down and dug into the pack again to find a huge comb to match the brush...and a mirror you held in your hand.

These things looked old...like antiques. And again, she wondered why Jax had them in his house.

Maybe he was gonna take 'em to Helping Hands...as a way to get inside. What better excuse to go into the Mafia's store than to make a donation? Then he could see the operation first hand!

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"Daddy!" Lexi hollered from the top of the jungle gym. "Daddy! Watch what I can do!"

Kelly stopped to watch. They really didn't have time for this. He wanted to just scoop up his baby and get back to the store ASAP.

Lexi grabbed the bar and rolled right over the top of it. She dangled by her arms for a few second, then she let go and dropped to the ground. A few seconds after that, she popped back up on her feet giggling and clapping for herself.

"See Daddy!" she said happily. "I climbed up wee-wee high! An' I wan't eben scared!"

"My little daredevil." he said with a grin. "Now let's go see Mommy."

"Wait!" Lexi cried. "I gots ta' show you da' monkey bars!"

And before her daddy could catch her...she was off, scrambling up the ladder.

Oh yeah...she's a firefighter's kid all right...Severide thought to himself.

So much for the fastest pick-up in history...

After the monkey bars, Lexi had to show him how fast she could go up the climbing wall.

In about four seconds she was looking over his head.

"All right, Missy...that's enough." he said as he plucked her off. "We gotta get back to the store...Mommy's there all by herself."

"Is dere yots a' cust-mers?" Lexi asked.

"Maybe..." Kelly answered. "Lots of people are happy the store's open again."

"Cause bad mans broke it?"

"Well, it's all fixed now." he told her. "Everything's good as new...better even."

He helped Lexi get her backpack on...then he swung her up onto his shoulders.

"Hang on." he said as he crossed the playground to the gate and headed toward Irving.

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The bells over the door jingled.

"Hey..." Lyssa said as she looked up.

"Hey yourself..." Nicky said. "This is Officer Tanya Bradford...she's fresh outta the Academy."

Alyssa extended her hand.

"Pleased to meet you." she said. "I'm Alyssa."

She and the young rookie shook hands.

"Where's your watch dog?" Nicky asked, looking around the shop.

"He went to pick Lexi up from school."

Nicky was surprised Kelly would leave. He'd been adamant that Alyssa not be alone in the store.

It was almost funny how serious he was.

"I can take care of myself, Sergeant Boungiovanni." Alyssa told him. "Or have you forgotten?"

Having five older brothers, she was a fierce fighter when she had to be...she had been ever since she could walk. Nicky used to joke about the "Attack of the Killer Baby Doll" when she used to go chasing after Joey in her poufy dress with all the ruffles and bows.

Until she turned and went after him.

Then it wasn't funny at all.

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"So to what do I owe the honor?" Lyssa asked.

"Actually, I was lookin' for your bodyguard." Nicky said.

"Then make yourself at home."

Officer Bradford was already looking at all the merchandise in the store.

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Kelly quickened his steps when he saw the patrol car parked outside the store.

He lifted Lexi over his head and burst in the door.

Imagine his relief to find his brother-in-law standing there.

Alyssa came around the counter to take Lexi from him. Once she had the little girl in her arms she stood up on her tip toes to kiss her husband.

"Take a breath, Severide." she whispered so only he could hear. "You're white as a ghost."

"What's goin' on?" he asked. "Is there a problem?"

Lyssa shook her head.

"No...Nicky wanted to tell you something." she said.

And she took Lexi off to the back room to put her backpack away.

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Kelly squared his shoulders and faced Nick.

"What?" he asked again. "Did ya hear anything about Jax?"

"No..." Nicky replied. "CPD's got bigger fish to fry right now. Did you hear 'bout the fire on Pensacola yesterday?"

"I was there."

"Did you hear what they found in the basement?"

Kelly nodded.

"It was the homeowner." Nicky said. "Seventy-nine year old widow. She was dead before the fire started. Blunt force trauma to the head. Some animal took a crowbar to her."

Severide just shook his head.

"Arson investigators found gasoline all over the place. They found a couple empty cans out in the garage...but the guy musta brought his own."

"A cover-up." Kelly said. "Maybe he was hoping there'd be nothing left."

"He got his wish." Nicky said. "But he was tryin' to cover up more than a homicide. He picked the place clean before he torched it. The old lady's daughter said her mom had thousands of dollars worth of jewelry and antique silver place settings in the house. Bunch a' other heirlooms too. It's all gone."


	27. Chapter 27

**Chapter 27**

"Jax, I don't like it here." Dorrie said. "It's dark...an' dirty...an' everything smells. The toilets don' work...an' there's no TV, 'cept for the ones in the boxes. Why do you have those TV's an stuff in boxes? Where'd you get 'em?"

"They fell off the truck..." he said with a rueful grin.

"Fell off?" she said. "Why didn't the driver back an' come get 'em? What if they got broken?"

"Will you shut up already?" Jax yelled. "Jesus...all you do is talk...talk, talk, talk! An' I told you not to go pokin' around. Everything in this place is government property! I told you...stay in your room when I go out!"

"But it's boring in there...an' creepy!" Dorrie cried. "I wanna go back to my 'partment."

"That's the first place your brother's gonna look for you. You want him to put you in a crazy house?" he said, slamming his hand on the table so hard the silver stuff rattled. "If that's what you want, be my guest. But then you can't be part of the investigation."

Dorrie opened her mouth to say something, but shut it in a hurry.

She had to be in on the investigation...Kelly was still in danger. Nicholas might be planting another hit man in the firehouse...and the other brothers might get their own guy in there to try and stop it. There was gonna be shooting...or an accident...it would be bad.

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"Where'd you go yesterday?" she asked, changing the subject. "You were gone all day."

Jax had taken some stuff from the backpacks and left the house. He didn't come back for hours...it was dark when he came back with Burger King for her to eat.

"This is stuff for another case." he told her. "This stuff's all fake...but it's really good fake stuff. People can't tell the difference, unless you're a trained expert. People sell this kinda stuff...and some poor sucker thinks he's gettin' the real thing. He drops a brick a' cash...and then when he goes to get it appraised for his insurance he finds out he was had."

"So where'd you get the stuff?" Dorrie asked.

"That doesn't matter...just know I put a first class con artist out of business."

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The next morning he took another load of the fake stuff. And he told Dorrie to stay out of sight and not to go snooping around.

She tried to be good and do like he said...but by lunchtime she couldn't stay in that stinky room one more minute. She grabbed her purse and emptied it on the mattress. She still had her bus pass...and she had thirty dollars in the secret compartment in her wallet. That was more than enough to get something to eat.

She _was_ eating for two. Wasn't that what people said about pregnant women?

She couldn't help herself.

Dorrie walked to the bus stop and she asked a woman how to get to 6100 Irving Park Road. And the nice lady told her.

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She changed busses twice, and she got off close to the school Kelly's kids went to. She walked by the fence and looked at the building.

Which class rooms were the kids in? What grades were they?

The boys looked pretty big...and the girls were pretty little. Dorrie searched her memory for every detail Jax had uncovered about them.

The boys were twins...and they were born on Christmas. And they looked exactly like Kelly.

Just like her Michael would look when he was born.

The girls weren't twins...even though they looked like they were the same age that day she saw them. One was older than the other. She wondered which one was which.

Jax prob'ly knew.

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She felt a rumbling in her stomach.

Maybe it was the baby!

Dorrie rubbed her stomach and smiled. Kelly thought the baby was a fake...he'd be so happy when he found out it was real! He'd want to marry her right away and be a father to his son!

But how could he do that? He was still married to Alyssa. They still had those other kids.

Did her brother still want her to marry the guy in New York?

It didn't matter...that's what she should do. And the sooner the better, too.

Dorrie turned away from the fence and headed west on Irving.

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The bells over the door jingled and Alyssa looked up from the paperwork she had on the counter.

And when she saw who was standing there, she felt her mouth go dry, her heart speed up, and she began to shake.

Dorrie walked right up to the counter.

"You need to get divorced." she said.

"Excuse me?"

The girl laid her hands on the counter.

"You need to get divorced." Dorrie repeated. "So Kelly an' me can get married."

Alyssa stared in shock for a few moments.

Kelly said this girl was crazy...seriously delusional was more like it.

But at the same time there was a childish sense of innocence that peeked out around the edges.

She had to remember what she was dealing with.

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"Dorrie..." Alyssa started as gently as she could. "I know you think you have some kind of relationship with Kelly..."

"I'm gonna have a baby." Dorrie said, leaning closer across the counter. "An' Kelly's gonna be a daddy."

"I think there's been some kind of misunderstanding...a mistake."

"No there's not!"

Dorrie slapped her palms on the counter...and Alyssa jumped.

"I love Kelly...an' he loves me! He saved me! An' now we're gonna get married...an' we're gonna have a baby! So you need to get divorced from him an' go marry the Mafia guy in New York! That's what Nicholas wants you to do!"

"Dorrie, someone's told you a big lie." Lyssa said, struggling to keep her cool. "There is no Mafia guy in New York...my brother's not running the mob here in Chicago. Nicholas is a police officer!"

"You're lying!" Dorrie screamed. "Why are you lying to me?! Do you think I'm stupid?!"

"I think someone very cruel's told you a big story. And none of its true." Alyssa told her calmly.

"You're the one who's bein' mean!"

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Deep breath...Alyssa told herself. This girl's not right...

"Dorrie." she said. "Kelly and I have been married for thirteen years. We have four kids...and our family's very happy. I know you think that because Kelly saved your life that means he's got some kind of feelings for you...but that's his job. He does that kind of thing every time he goes on shift. It's his job and he's very good at what he does."

"Stop sayin' that! Kelly does love me! An' he's gonna marry me...an' we're gonna have babies...an' live in a house...an' then Scott can't make me go in a group home!"

"Is Scott your brother?" Lyssa asked. "Maybe we should call him and talk to him?"

"No! Stop talkin'!" Dorrie yelled, slapping her palms on the counter to emphasize every word. "You're not callin' my brother! An' I'm not goin' to a group home!"

She turned and ran for the door.

Dorrie yanked it open and the bells almost fell off their hook.

She turned back to Alyssa and fired off one parting shot.

"Get divorced! Now!"

Then she ran outside and headed down the street.

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"Whaddaya mean she was in the store?!" Kelly exclaimed.

Alyssa looked at him with tired eyes.

She hadn't slept a wink last night...since her confrontation with Dorrie she was so out of sorts. She was so distracted...she even burned dinner and had to order a pizza for the kids.

But she couldn't even look at food herself.

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"Exactly what I said. Dorrie came into the store yesterday afternoon. She was telling me I had to divorce you...because the two of you were getting married." she said. "And she's still saying she's pregnant."

"Her brother said she wasn't! He took her to a doctor and the test was negative!"

"I understand that, Kelly. I'm saying _Dorrie_ still _believes_ she's pregnant."

Kelly ran his hand through his hair as he paced back and forth across the kitchen.

He thought Dorrie was still locked up at Lakeshore...and here she was out on the street. She even talked to his wife!

Things were getting way out of hand...even more so than they already were.

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He turned on Alyssa.

"Why didn't you call the cops?" he demanded.

"Because I didn't think it was necessary...I tried to talk to her..."

"Alyssa! She's insane! You can't reason with her!" he told her.

Besides...she was probably in touch with Jax...the cops weren't looking for him. They were too busy with the homicide over on Pensacola.

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Severide pulled out his phone and scrolled through his contacts.

"Antonio..." he said when the call went through.

One the other end of the line the detective struggled to pull himself out of the coma he'd just fallen into a couple hours before.

The Pensacola case, indeed, had every cop in the city working overtime.

It may have been a sloppy job...but whoever did it accomplished his goal. The cops were spinning their wheels. There hadn't been a viable lead yet.

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Antonio Dawson had been out on the street beating all the bushes, going to pawn shops, shaking down every fence he knew. He'd dropped a boatload of cash on his entire roster of CI's...and come up with shit.

He'd finally headed home to grab a meal, a shower, a shave, and some desperately needed sleep...not necessarily in that order.

And now Severide was calling him to report that Dorrie had gone into Helping Hands and confronted Alyssa.

"Okay...okay...okay..." he said when Severide finally stopped for a breath. "I'll make some calls...send a unit around to her apartment. We'll try an' get a line on her."

There was some more yelling from the phone...and then it went dead.

Antonio tossed it across the nightstand and flopped back down across the bed. He would do everything he's just promised his friend...in a few hours when he could at least see the numbers on the keypad to make the call.

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And back at his house, Severide knew he'd just been given the brush-off.

"Kelly..." Alyssa said.

She stood there hugging herself tight. She knew her husband would be upset...but not _this_ upset.

"Lyssa...this is serious." he said. "She'd never have known about the store if it hadn't been for that circus freak. They know where you work...they know who you are. They may even know where we live..."

"You're right..." she conceded. "You're right. I should have called the police."

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Kelly softened...and he took a couple steps across the kitchen and opened his arms to his wife.

"I'm just...scared." he whispered. "I'm scared shitless that this guy...Jax...that he'll get to you and the kids. I mean...we've seen what he's capable of."

Alyssa settled deeper into his embrace and he held onto her with everything he had.


	28. Chapter 28

**Chapter 28**

Kelly came home from the gym to find Lexi outside in the backyard. She was sitting in the cab of the fire truck with her arms crossed over her chest and a dark look on her face.

He could feel the muscles in his neck and back tense up again...all the stress he'd been feeling before his work out just came rushing back.

He looked around and he heard the twins next door in Jimmy's yard...so at least the three year old wasn't totally alone. But he'd be talking to the boys later about keeping a better eye on their sister. Especially with the whole world gone crazy like it had.

But now he had to find out what Lexi was so upset about.

"What's a'matter with my girl?" he asked, as he crouched down beside the fire truck, ignoring the protests from his right knee.

He was gonna be sore as hell later...three hours at the gym tended to do that to him.

"Maggie kick me outta da' pway woom." Lexi grumbled. "Maggie bein' mean an' bossy!"

"Whaddya mean 'she kicked you out'?"

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Kelly stood up slowly and help out his hand.

Lexi slid across the varnished wooden seat and reached for it...then Kelly lead her over to the glider swing that he still hadn't gotten around to taking apart and storing in the garage.

Once the baby had crawled up into his lap, Kelly asked his question again.

"Whaddya mean 'Maggie kicked you out'?"

"She gots Sarah an' Amanda ober to pway...an' she say 'you can't pway, Wexie...you jus' a pwe-school baby!"

Kelly took a long, slow, deep breath.

Maggie was really getting to be impossible. He'd coddled her and catered to her every whim since the moment she was born...and she'd always been his little princess. But what might have been cute when she was a toddler was downright obnoxious in a five year old.

She had to learn she couldn't have her own way all the time.

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"Dey pwayin' school..." Lexi said. "I know how ta pway dat game!"

Kelly gave her a snuggle.

"How 'bout if you an' Daddy go play cars in the living room?" he asked, trying to cheer her up. "Remember how we used to race the little cars across the floor? I bet the fire truck and Buzz Lightyear can still beat Cinderella and Belle and Ariel."

"Ciner-wella always beat Buzz Lightyear!" Lexi said with confidence. "An' Belle beat fy-tuck!"

"No way!" Kelly said with a grin. "That sounds like a challenge, Missy!"

He scooped Lexi up into his arms and gave her tummy a little tickle...and Lexi squealed with laughter.

And Kelly laughed as he carried her through the back door...

"Daddy!" Maggie yelled as he came in.

She ran to hug his legs...but he stepped out of her grasp.

"You're playing with your friends, Maggie Grace." he told her. "We'll talk later..."

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Kelly set Lexi down and she ran through the kitchen to the front of the house to get the cars.

Lyssa was taking cookies out of the oven and he waited till she set the baking sheet down on top of the stove and took off her oven mitts before he dropped his gym bag.

She turned to him.

"What's goin' on in there?" he asked, cocking his head in the direction of the four seasons room.

"Maggie was showing off for her friends." she answered with a roll of her eyes.

"Didn't you say anything?"

Alyssa crossed her arms and gave him a 'look'.

"No...I just let her talk nasty to her sister..." she said. "Of course I said something. I took Maggie aside and told her she needed to apologize or I was sending Sarah and Amanda home...and I took Lexi aside and explained that Maggie was playing with her friends and that when she had Lily and Abby or one of her other friends over she got to play with them by herself."

"We've gotta do something about Maggie..." Kelly said.

"Agreed. But I didn't see any point in creating any more drama as long as she apologized at the moment. But I told her we weren't done with this yet and we were going to have a _big_ talk after her friends went home."

Kelly nodded.

Even after four kids this was all still totally foreign to him...this bickering and teasing back and forth. It was more Andy and Maggie that did the teasing. They seemed to be the ones who always started something. Jesse was so laid back...but when you pushed him far enough, look out. Lexi was similar in temperament, but she could give it out as good as she got.

"Daddy!" Lexi cried from the living room. "Is you comin'?"

He had to smile...they could deal with Maggie and her attitude later.

"Coming!" he called back.

He leaned down to give Lyssa a kiss...then grabbed his gym bag to set in the laundry room before he went to get his butt kicked in cars.

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"Whaddya mean you went to the store?!" Jax yelled. "Do you wanna blow the whole fucking op?!"

Dorrie's lip trembled.

"I just wanna marry Kelly...an' live in a real house with sinks an' toilets an' showers that work...I want my baby to be okay..." she wailed. "I don' like it here!"

"Well anytime you want...there's the goddamn door...go back to your apartment. And when your brother gets back to town have fun in the fucking group home!"

He turned away from her in frustration.

He couldn't stand her whining and sniveling one more minute.

It was time to finish the game.

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Sarah and Amanda got picked up right before dinner...and Maggie ran into the living room where Kelly and Lexi had gotten tired of cars and started a game of Match Two.

"I wanna play!" she said, running up to the coffee table, expecting to take a turn.

But Kelly shook his head.

"I'm playin' with your sister now..." he said. "And I'm not happy about you bein' mean to her when you had your friends over."

"But I said 'sorry'!" Maggie protested.

"Sorry doesn't make it all better." Kelly told her. "And it doesn't make the bad feelings go away."

"It doesn't?" Maggie said.

"Nope..."

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"Mom...Dad..." Jesse said as the family was sitting around the dinner table. "Mr. Morrissey said the books came in yesterday."

"That's great, Jess." Kelly said.

"He said he's got somebody from the Tribune to do a piece for the Sunday paper...and he called WGN. He gave me a letter for you and Mom to sign."

"We'll take a look at it after dinner." Alyssa said.

As soon as the dishes were cleared away and Kelly and the boys had helped themselves to a second piece of chocolate cake...Alyssa opened the envelope with the letter. She looked it over and handed it across the table to Kelly, who's heart sunk a little.

When the school talked about promoting Jesse's book, that was before all the crazy started. Now he read Mr. Morrissey's plan, which included pieces in both papers, interviews for both WGN's and FOX's morning shows...all things to get the word out...to generate an interest in a twelve and a half year old seventh grader from a little Catholic school who wrote a book.

All things to call attention to Jesse Severide...son of Kelly and Alyssa Severide...who lived in the Portage Park area.

Did you hear that, Jax whatever-the-hell-your-name-is?

He swallowed hard as he reached for the pen that Alyssa had laid on the table...and scribbled his name on the bottom of the letter.

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"C'mon! Wake up!"

Jax pounded on the door of Dorrie's room at six in the morning.

"C'mon, damnit! We gotta go!"

Dorrie pulled herself into a sitting position and wiped the sleep from her eyes.

"Will you get a move on?!" he hollered from outside the door.

She rolled off the filthy mattress and pushed herself up onto her feet and stretched.

That bed was uncomfortable...she might as well be sleeping on the floor. It smelled bad...like sweat and pee...and it made her itch.

Today when Jax went out she was gonna sneak back to her place and take a long, hot shower...get some clean clothes...and maybe take a long nap.

Maybe after she did that she wouldn't feel so gross.

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"What're you doing?" she asked as Jax tried the doors of car after car on a little side street about seven blocks from his house. "Don't you know which car it is? Why don' you just click the thing? An' why'd you park so far away?"

"Will you shut up with the twenty questions?" he snapped. "I tol' you...I gotta change cars every day...so my targets can't identify. The company just leaves a different car...an' they text me a location. They just don't always text me the description!"

Dorrie's face screwed up.

That seemed weird...the CIA knew everything...Jax said so. But they parked their people's cars on side streets? An' how was Jax supposed to get the keys?

He finally found the one he was looking for.

"Here..." he said, looking around to make certain nobody saw. "Get in! Move!"

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As she flopped into the passenger seat she was surprised to see Jax playing under the dashboard.

"What're you doin' now? Jus' use the key. It looks like you're _stealin' _it!"

"Shut...the...hell...up!" he growled as he crossed the right wires and the engine sprang to life.

"You _are_ stealin' it!" Dorrie cried. "But that's _wrong_! You could get _'rested_!"

"It's not stealin'...for the last fuckin' time...this is how the CIA does things. They can't just drop of a car like Enterprise an' advertise to the entire goddamn world who their operatives are! Now will you just keep your mouth shut for _five minutes_?"

"Where're we goin'?" she asked, completely ignoring his instructions.

He sighed.

Soon...soon he'd get rid of her...and maybe have a few minutes peace.

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They drove in a roundabout way...taking mostly side streets and alleys...avoiding the main streets.

And the traffic cams.

Dorrie got confused in all the cutting over, going around and doubling back...but then she finally recognized where they were.

They were on Byron...a few doors down from Kelly's house!

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"What're we doin'?" she asked. "Is somethin' happenin' with the case?"

"I tol' you. We're gathering intel. We've gotta move up the timeline before Alyssa's brothers start an all-out war for control of the family. Three of 'em live on this street...so we gotta monitor everybody's comings and goings." he snapped impatiently. "Now...watch the damn house!"

A few minutes later a boy came out of the house across the street from Kelly's and another boy came out of the house next door...and they started walking down the street.

"Who're they?" Dorrie wanted to know. "Are they related to Kelly?"

"Prob'ly..." Jax mumbled, as he aimed the high powered camera at the boys and snapped photo after photo.

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A teenage girl came from the house next door to Severide's' and ran to catch up with the boys. Dorrie could hear her yelling...but she couldn't make out what the words were.

She opened the notebook Jax had shoved into her hands when they first parked...and dug in her purse for her favorite purple pen. In her very best handwriting, she wrote down all the house numbers.

6134...Kelly's house! 6135...Alyssa's brother's house.

"Which one lives where?" she asked.

"I don' remember..." Jax said. "Just mark down who comes out an' we'll look 'em up later."

"In the secret government computer?"

"No...the regular one...it's all a matter of public records." he told her. "Jus' write it down."

She wrote 'boy' next to 6135.

6136...another brother. Boy...and girl.

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"Ooohhh! There's Kelly!" Dorrie squealed.

Kelly's car backed out of the drive...and he honked the horn to get the attention of the man coming out of 6135.

"Are you gettin' this?" Jax asked.

"Yeah..."

She wrote down 'Kelly'...and 'Alyssa's brother'.

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There was more activity from the three houses.

The twins came out...and crossed the street to 6135 where they met up with another boy who looked to be about their age. A few minutes later a man in an expensive looking suit came out of 6136. Dorrie could hear him call out to the three boys across the street...then he waved to them. And the boys answered him and waved back.

She thought she heard 'Uncle Jimmy'.

Rather than ask Jax and have him yell at her again, she just wrote it down.

6136...Jimmy.

Jax was busy snapping frame after frame of the three boys.

He licked his lips anxiously...as a plan began to take root.

He knew just how he was gonna mess with Dorrie's precious fireman.

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It was quiet for about half an hour...and Jax was almost ready to call it quits when Alyssa came out of 6134 with the two little girls.

"Look!" Dorrie said excitedly.

The two little girls bounced down the sidewalk...backpacks bouncing with them.

"They're so cute!" Dorrie squealed. "Look at 'em!"

"Keep your voice down!" Jax snapped as he aimed the camera. "You're gonna give away our position!"

But as the girls skipped past their car, the shutter snapped about a frame a second.


	29. Chapter 29

**Chapter 29**

Severide was running late...and he walked quickly from his car to the firehouse.

He pulled open the door to the common room to shave a few steps from his journey to the locker room...where he found most of Black Watch and all the guys from Red Watch huddled around the television.

He peered between the bodies and what he saw on the screen took his breath away.

It was a firefighters' worst nightmare.

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The massive building was burning out of control. Flames shot through bales of thick, choking black smoke that rolled out of every window he could see.

"Where's this?" he asked.

"St. Louis..." Boden answered.

Kelly looked up and his eyes met Chief's for just a second before he focused back on the screen. Whatever hard feelings he still had towards Boden since the Baby-gate fiasco...it didn't matter. All that mattered right at the moment was he could see a lot of firefighters in serious trouble...and there wasn't a damn thing he could do about it.

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The blonde reporter stepped in front of the camera and everyone held their breath.

"The first alarm came in at 5:49 am..." she began. "and right now we estimate there to be between two hundred and two hundred-fifty firefighters on the scene."

"That's a helluva lot 'a man power." Hermann muttered under his breath.

"SHHHH!" about half a dozen people hissed at him.

The screen showed a picture of a luxurious building...minus smoke and flames.

"The twenty story hotel located in the historic downtown district was booked nearly to capacity." the reporter droned.

The graphic switched to a cutaway drawing.

"The fire was reported to have started in the laundry, but a malfunctioning sprinkler system allowed it to continue burning unchecked...devouring everything in its path. The fire apparently blazed up a laundry chute that was opened on the fifth floor by an unsuspecting member of the housekeeping staff."

"Jesus...what a mess..." Casey said.

No kidding...

The reporter continued her horrific tale...

"There have been reports of six fatalities so far...including the housekeeper who opened the laundry chute." she said. "But this disaster is far from over and the death count is expected to rise as first responders battle to get the fire under control.

The camera pulled back, giving the men and women of Station 51 a full view of the horror.

"I'd hate to be the guy who signed off on the last fire inspection..." Otis said.

"Yeah..." Shay agreed. "It looks like everything that could possibly go wrong did."

Before anyone could say another word, the bells went off.

"Engine 51...Truck 81...Ambulance 61...Squad 3...structure fire..."

Everyone ran for the apparatus room and their gear. It didn't matter that half of them hadn't even changed out yet. They had their own fire to fight...and hopefully they'd fare better than their brethren in St. Louis.

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"Why'd you have to leave the car in front of Kelly's house?" Dorrie asked.

She was huffing and puffing from their long walk when she finally hauled herself onto the second bus that would take them back to Jax's house.

"Cause I didn't like it..." he said as he flopped into a seat.

Dorrie dropped into the seat across the aisle with a loud 'plop'...and some people got up and moved away from the strange looking pair.

"I didn't like it either." she said loudly. "It was dirty an' it had all that junk in the back. Why would the President give you such a crappy car to drive when you're on a investigation?"

"SSSSHHHH!" Jax hissed at her. "Will you keep your voice down!"

He looked around to make sure no one had overheard the retard.

"What part of 'secret agent' and 'classified op' don't you understand?"

Dorrie clamped her lips shut.

She didn't like it when he yelled at her.

"Are you goin' out?" she asked. "After we get home, I mean?"

She was still hoping she could go back to her apartment...even if she had to take _four_ different busses to do it.

"We gotta get somewhere with Wi-Fi..." he said. "Gotta download the pictures...an' figure out the players..."

He settled back in his seat and closed his eyes.

"Wake me up when our stop comes..."

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Kelly came in the next morning.

What a shift.

The structure fire they had gotten called to at the start of shift turned out to be a pretty big deal. It was an apartment building...and the owner used the basement as a storage facility. It was like a maze...everything in piles up to the ceiling and narrow aisles. They'd barely begun to search when one of the piles caught fire and spread to the next one.

The horror of the fire on TV still fresh in his mind, Kelly instinctively pulled Squad 3 back. He wasn't about to send his men into the maze and have a wall of flames collapse on them.

"No go, Chief!" he'd yelled. "We can't make it!"

"Pull back!" Boden ordered. "Pull back!"

Severide backed his squad out the way they came and said a prayer that there was nobody down there as Engine came in with a line.

They managed to get everybody out of the three apartments...an old lady who reminded Kelly of that busybody Mrs. Nugent who lived in Alyssa's building over on Ashland. He remembered her with the pink housecoat and her pinched little face peering through crack in the door when he went up and down the stairs.

The second floor was a woman with seven kids...and the firefighters had passed them out the window one after another. And on the top floor was an old man who looked like one of those shrunken heads Andy had been so fascinated by at the Ripley's museum the last time the family had gone to Wisconsin Dells.

But after the fire had been knocked down one of the little boys from the second floor came running up to him.

"Dat was so cool, Mister Firefighter!" he chattered excitedly. "I wanna be a firefighter when I grow up! I wanna ride in a big red truck an' climb on ladders an' play wif' da big hose..."

Despite himself, Severide had smiled.

Little Guy couldn't have been more than four or five...he patted him on the head before he scooped the boy up and delivered him back to his mama.

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He came in his back door and followed the smell of fresh cinnamon bread..."silly-man bread" as Lexi called it...into the kitchen where he stopped in his tracks.

There were too many people...specifically too many little people.

He crossed the room to the table where he messed up Andy's hair...then Jesse's. Then he kissed Maggie on top of her strawberry blonde curls...and Lexi's straight-as-a-board brown hair. Finally he came to a little head of platinum blonde.

"Wait a minute..." he said. "This isn't ours."

Laura Jeanne Weathers-Craddock looked up at him with big blue eyes.

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"Ten-ten!" she cried happily.

'Ten-ten' was her special name for Kelly...she couldn't say 'Lieutenant'.

"Where'd you come from?" he asked.

"Baby Yo-ya sweeped ober!" Lexi told him, clapping her hands. "She sweeped on da' secret bed un-ner Maggie's bed!"

Maggie had a trundle bed...

But then Lexi's voice dropped to a conspiratorial whisper.

"But she came in da pink fi-tuck bed wif me!"

Kelly looked at his wife for clarification.

"Marianne was sick last night..." she explained. "And Jeanne was going to take her to the doctor."

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Marianne was Hollywood's grandmother...and she was in her nineties. Lately her health had taken a turn for the worse and the old woman had been in and out of the hospital three or four times in the past six months.

"And both Morgan and Shaina had early calls this morning...so they called me to come get Laura."

Morgan and Shaina were both actors on the show Chicago Fire...now in its fifth season. Or was it six? Severide lost track sometimes.

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Before Kelly could answer.

"Yo-ya no bee-bee!" Laura told Lexi. "Yo-ya big girl!"

Lexi looked contrite.

"I sow-wy...I forgetted."

Laura nodded with satisfaction as she took a big bite of "silly-man" bread.

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"Jax. I gotta take a shower." Dorrie complained. "I can' stand it anymore. It's been about five days! I feel so gross!"

Jax looked her over.

Yeah...she was pretty nasty...her hair a stringy, greasy mess...her clothes stank of sweat.

"Okay...we'll go someplace an' take care of it." he said.

Besides, he was pretty ripe himself.

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They got off the bus in the vicinity of Kedzie and Devon. Then Jax led her down a residential street to a place he'd been casing for the past few days.

The pair cut through an alley and he pulled back a section of chain link fence and motioned for Dorrie to crawl through the hole. He checked to make sure no one was looking...and then ducked through himself.

He took the back stairs two at a time and came to the back door of a second floor apartment.

Jax pulled some thin black rods out of the pocket of his jeans and inserted them into the top lock on the door. A little jimmying...and it turned. Then he did the same with the one on the doorknob.

He took a deep breath and turned the knob. The door opened without so much as a creak...and Jax allowed himself to exhale.

"C'mon." he said. "Get inside before somebody sees you!"

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Dorrie followed him into a long, narrow kitchen. Once she'd crossed the threshold Jax quickly shut the door and flipped the lock...then he closed the blinds.

"What is this place?" she asked.

It was certainly an improvement from their current home. This apartment was simple, but it was clean. It didn't smell...and she was pretty sure the lights and the water worked.

"It's another one of the CIA's safe houses. Nobody's usin' it this week...so we can get cleaned up and change clothes..."

"But I don't got no clean clothes!" Dorrie whined. "All my stuff's still at my 'partment..."

"Relax, will ya? There's a washing machine here...you can do our laundry...an' there's stuff here we can take."

Dorrie wasn't sure about that...there were some things you just didn't borrow. Just like you should never buy underwear at a yard sale. And how did Jax know if the stuff was gonna fit her?

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"You go first." Jax said. "Take as much time as you want."

"Okay..." she said.

She walked through the kitchen to the front of the apartment, looking at everything.

She stepped into another room with a rectangular table and six chairs. This must be the dining room...she thought. Turning around she spied a photo in a frame sitting atop a simple wood cabinet. It was a family...a mom, a dad, a teenage boy and two young girls. They had dark skin...but they weren't black...they were more brown...like Indian.

They were standing in front of tree, maybe in a park...and they were smiling for the camera.

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Jax came into the dining room.

"I thought you were gonna shower." he said.

She held out the picture.

"Who are these people?" she asked.

He glanced at them and shrugged.

"Hell if I know. Prob'ly just some random people. The Company makes these houses look more homey...cause this is where they stash witnesses or people in danger they have to protect."

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People they have to protect?

"Can't we bring Kelly here?" she said. "So the Mafia people can't hurt him an' he doesn't get hurt when Alyssa's brothers have their war at the fire station? Please? Can we get him?"

But Jax shook his head.

"No...the Company's got a different plan to get him away when the time's right. Don't worry...it'll be soon." Jax told her. "Now will you go take a shower? You smell like old shit."

"That's mean!"

He shrugged again.

"It's true."

"Well...you gots BO!" Dorrie fired back.

"And as soon as you shower, I'll take one." he said, an exasperated edge in his voice. "So get goin' will ya?"


	30. Chapter 30

**Chapter 30**

"Daddy...do I has to go to schoo'?" Lexi asked.

"Yes..." he answered. "Why wouldn't you go to school? You're not sick..."

"But who gonna pway wif Yo-ya when I gone?"

She was worried about her little friend being lonely.

Who indeed?

Oh well, so much for Kelly's plan for a morning nap.

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As Andy and Jesse were scrambling into their hoodies and making sure they had everything in their backpacks...

"Dad...that reporter guy from the Tribune's supposed to come to school this afternoon." Jesse remembered. "Are you and Mom coming?"

Oh shit...he'd totally forgotten about that.

"Yeah...we'll be there."

Kelly looked over to his wife for confirmation.

"Of course..." Alyssa said.

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"What're you doin'?" Dorrie asked.

Jax, startled, slammed the drawer he had been rifling through shut.

"Don't DO that..." he said. "Didn't anybody ever tell you not to sneak up on people?"

"What're you doin' in here?" she asked again, ignoring his lecture.

Why was he in what she assumed was a teenage boy's room...goin' through the dressers?

"An' where'd you get those clothes?"

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After he showered, Jax had put on a black t-shirt with the name of some group called "The Ramones" on the front, skinny blue jeans that were a little long...and he'd added a silver and black chain, leather cuff wrist bands and a black bandana.

"I told you...the stuff here is CIA property." he said. "We can just take what we want."

But that didn't seem right...even just wrapped in a bathrobe while she waited for the laundry...she felt like she was taking something that didn't belong to her.

"Why don't you put some clothes on? Jeez..." Jax asked her.

Having Dorrie waddling around in next to nothing was disturbing...to say the least.

"I doubt this stuff'll fit me..." she said. "'Sides...I feel funny takin' somebody else's stuff."

"Fine...suit yourself."

He started to walk out of the room.

"Can you go get us somethin' to eat?" she said.

"There's food in the kitchen." he told her. "Why don't you just make somethin'?"

Dorrie sighed. Again...she felt funny. Even though Jax said this was a CIA house, it didn't feel like it. There were pictures of the same family...the man, the woman and the three kids all over the apartment. It was like this was_ their_ house...so that was the same as stealing.

But she didn't want to fight. If Jax got mad at her he might throw her out of the investigation...and then she wouldn't be able to help Kelly.

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Laura ran for the garage as soon as the back door opened.

"We're not goin' in the car, Laura..." Kelly called to her.

"Wan' da pink car!" Laura cried, straining to turn the knob on the door.

"You don' go in 'dere..." Lexi told her. "Daddy pushes in da numbers!"

Kelly sighed as he keyed in the code. They had to get going otherwise Maggie and Lexi would both be late for school. So if Laura wanted to ride in the pink car he had to push...fine...as long as they got there.

As soon as the door started to rise the little girl was scampering underneath to get to her favorite toy at the Severide's. And once she was positioned in the driver's seat, Kelly started to push her down the drive and east on Byron toward Meade.

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"What're we gonna do next?" Dorrie asked.

Their clothes had dried and she was back in hers. Jax, however, stuffed his clean clothes in his backpack...along with a few more shirts, another pair of jeans, a couple of baseball caps and another chain that he could hook on his belt.

He had also helped himself to a few more treasures that looked valuable...but Dorrie didn't need to know that.

It was all part of the game...being smarter than everybody else. They were the idiots...slaving away at some job...saving to get the newest items. Work was for suckers...when he saw something he wanted, even when he saw something he didn't want...he just took it.

"We're gonna set up surveillance again...we still don't know who all our players are."

An internet search had turned up that Nicholas Boungiovanni lived across the street from Severide...and he had a wife and three sons. Declan was twenty...Aiden was seventeen, and Connor was fourteen. They had seen Connor and Aiden the other day when they staked out the houses.

Jimmy Boungiovanni lived next door and he had two kids living with him now. Nicole...who according to the records was almost eighteen. A little more poking told Jax that she was a senior at Resurrection. They had pictures of her...and her brother Garrett who was sixteen.

There was another daughter, Samantha...she was twenty...and they hadn't seen her at all. She must go to college somewhere, he reasoned.

There was another brother...Joseph...who lived two blocks down.

That's where they were gonna focus today.

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But they still had some time. Time enough for Jax to pawn some of the stuff he got today...and not have to drive to Indiana to do it.

He screwed up with that old lady.

All the stuff from her house was documented in insurance records...kept in her daughter's safety deposit box. So every pawn shop in Chicago and the surrounding suburbs was lookin' for the silver...and the jewelry.

Fortunately he knew a few places over in Gary that weren't too particular and could care less about the police notices.

But he should be able to get a couple hundred out of the stuff from the apartment...the safe house...he chuckled to himself.

Dorrie was so gullible she'd believe anything.

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Everybody gathered around outside St. Pasqual's Early Childhood Center when Lexi Severide came in holding the hand of a little blonde girl no one had ever seen before.

"Did ya gets a new sister?" a little boy named Leo asked.

Lexi smiled...Leo wasn't very smart. After a month in pre-school he still couldn't sing the A-B-C's...he always got messed up on the L-M-N-O-P part. He said 'men-oh-pee'. It was so silly.

Now he thought babies came already big?

"No...Yo-ya's my bestest fwiend..." Lexi told him. "An' she stayed ober at my house."

"Is she gonna be in our class?" another kid wanted to know.

Lexi shook her head.

"My Daddy gots to take her home...but I wan' her to see my schoo'."

Kelly got ready to scoop up his pint sized house guest to make a quick get away...but Lexi had dragged Laura over to check out all the books...after she'd shown her her chair and her cubby...and the calendar.

"Okay, Lexi...we gotta go. Mrs. Beatty's givin' us the evil eye..." he said. "Tell Laura you'll see her later."

There was hugging and kisses...you'd think they weren't gonna see each other for three years...not three hours.

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Jax started checking the cars on the side streets...

"Did the President drop off another car?" she asked. "I hope it's a better one than last time."

"Shhh..." he hissed.

He was gonna have to leave her...her big mouth was gonna get them both in trouble.

He tried the door of a Scion...

"Hey!" a voice called out. "Whatcha doin' to my car?"

A tall African American man was walking fast...coming right towards them.

Normally Jax would've just run...but Dorrie'd get caught in a second. And when the guy called the cops she was likely to tell 'em the whole CIA story...and show 'em the apartment where they'd just been. She might even be able to tell them about "his" house...and then it would be all over for him.

Thinking fast, Jax backed away.

"Sorry..." he called back. "My bad. I thought it was my buddy's car. I coulda sworn he told me it was parked on Greenwood..."

"Get the fuck away from my car..." the man said.

"Sorry..." Jax said again.

He circled around back to the sidewalk and grabbed Dorrie by the arm.

"C'mon..."he hissed.

And he dragged her off in the direction of the bus stop.

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They had to be at the school by four.

So Kelly called his girls' favorite babysitter.

Mouch was picking up Maggie after school...and as soon as they got home, Kelly and Lyssa would leave.

The whole idea of talking to a reporter made him nervous. But the school wanted to get the word out about Jesse's book...the piece they were doing today was supposed to go in Sunday's Trib...and later that week they were supposed to meet a guy from the Times.

Then Jesse was scheduled to do a bit on the WGN Morning News...and Mr. Morrissey was trying to get someone over at FOX. And of course Kelly and Alyssa would have to be there.

It wasn't that he wasn't proud of Jesse...he was. God, he was so proud of his kid. But the timing could be better. If all the stuff with Dorrie and Jax hadn't been going on...

Kelly hadn't seen them at any fire scenes lately, but that didn't mean they weren't there.

And even though there was no proof to tie Jax to the break-in at Helping Hands...Severide would bet his bottom dollar it was him. And Dorrie just walking in the other day...it just went to prove this thing, whatever it was, was far from over.

Maybe he'd have to talk to Mr. Morrissey and Sister Therese about pushing back the publicity campaign.


	31. Chapter 31

**Chapter 31**

"Jax...let's go." Dorrie whined.

They were sitting in a tan Mitsubishi...and they were on Kelly's street. The only problem was they were two blocks away.

After they took the bus back to the house, Jax went out. And he gave Dorrie an ultimatum. Stay inside...stay out of sight...stay out of trouble. Otherwise go back to her apartment and wait for her brother to stick her in a group home. And then she'd never see Kelly again...'cause people in group homes didn't get to come and go as they pleased.

He also told her to keep her phone on. He'd call her and tell her where to meet him when it was time to go.

"It's borin' here." she complained. "I wanna go back to Kelly's house."

"Will you quit bitching and moaning? Jesus..." Jax groaned. "How many times do I gotta tell you? We need to know who all the players are...how they all fit into the game. We've got all in intel we need from Kelly's place. But we don't know jack shit about these people."

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They were parked across the street from Joey and EmmaLynn's house. And so far they'd seen a woman with a baby...well...a big baby in a stroller and a little girl who looked half black.

"The brothers are fighting for control of the family." Jax explained again. "Nicholas was apparently the father's pick...but the others don' wanna get shut outta things. We're talkin' huge amounts of money here. Drugs...gambling...protection racket...prostitution."

But Dorrie wasn't paying attention.

She wanted to know what was going on down the block. Was Kelly home? She had memorized his schedule...and he was off today. What did he do on his days off? Did he do stuff around his house? Did he go out? Did he play with the kids? What did he do with Alyssa? That's the kind of 'intel' she was interested in.

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Kelly rapped his knuckles on the door of his sons' room.

"Hey guys..." he said. "I need you to come with me."

Andy jumped down off his bed.

"Where're we goin'?" he asked.

Dad didn't usually ask them to run errands with him on school days...so this must be something pretty important.

But Jesse stayed put.

"You too, Jess..." Kelly told him. "This concerns you too."

Reluctantly, Jesse slid down from his lofted bed. Usually he was just as eager as Andy to go somewhere with his dad...but after what just had happened at school...

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When the reporter for the Trib was there, Kelly had asked to speak to him, Mr. Morrissey and Sister Therese out in the hallway.

"Listen..." he began, once the door closed behind them. "I'm really sorry...but I need to ask you to hold off on the book thing for a while."

He wiped his palms on his jeans...and took a deep breath.

"I know you've all gone to a lot of trouble and the school's put out all this money...but there's a problem going on right now, and I really don't want my family in the news."

"What kind of problem?" Sister Therese asked.

She had known the Severide's since the twins were in kindergarten, and she knew they were a good family. Kelly wouldn't make this kind of request if there weren't something serious happening.

"Right before school started I pulled this woman out of a car wreck..." Kelly told the nun. "And since then she's developed kind of a fixation on me. She's got some mental problems...but there's a guy who's taking advantage of her. And he's really dangerous. He tampered with one of my men's truck...nearly got Clarke killed. I'm positive he's the one who broke into Helping Hands."

"I assume the police are involved." Mr. Morrissey cut in. "Jesse's worked so hard on this project..."

"I know he has!" Kelly snapped. "You think I didn't think about how Jesse would feel? These people know my wife's name...they know where she works...they've been in the store...twice! I just don't want 'em getting any more information about my family than they've already got!"

In the end they all decided to let the interview go on as planned for today...and the Trib guy agreed to hold it for a couple of weeks. They would sell the book within the St. Pasqual's community for now by announcing it after Mass and in the church bulletin. But anything outside that would have to wait.

Hopefully the cops would find Jax and lock him up for a good, long time. Hopefully Dorrie would get the help she needed and life could get back to normal.

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"Shotgun!" Andy yelled, as he ran around to the passenger side.

"Fine..." Jesse grumbled as he trudged to the rear passenger door.

Kelly felt a stab in his chest as he watched his son. He knew Jesse was upset...but hopefully once he heard the reason for delaying the book publicity, he'd understand.

"Where're we goin'?" Andy asked again.

"Just somewhere we can talk, Buddy." Kelly said.

That sounded serious...but Kelly didn't say another word till they got to Lincoln Park.

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It was one of their favorite places to go...there were paths they could walk...sometimes they loaded bikes onto the rack...or Alyssa would pack a picnic. They would toss the ball around. Sometimes they would go to the Farmer's Market in the summer. It was just a great place for the family to hang out.

Kelly parked on along the street and they got out to walk.

"Dad? What's goin' on?" Andy asked. "Are you and Mom gettin' divorced?"

That happened to his friend Tommy Dillard at school. His dad took him and his brothers out...and told them he was movin' to an apartment but it would be okay 'cause he loved 'em and he'd still see 'em all the time. It turned out to be a load of BS 'cause Tommy only saw his dad once or twice a month now.

"No...it's nothin' like that, nothin' with Mom and me."

"Are you gonna retire from the Department?" he asked. "Are we gonna move to Florida?"

That was the only other thing that the twelve...almost thirteen year old could think of that would be so serious.

"No...I'm not retiring."

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He led the twins over to a picnic table underneath a big tree and motioned for them to sit down. He took a seat across from them and then Kelly focused on Jesse.

"I wanted to explain why I asked Mr. Morrissey and Sister Therese to push back the book publicity." he said.

Jesse looked away.

"Jesse...look at me." Kelly told him.

The boy reluctantly met his father's eyes.

Kelly started slowly.

"There's been some trouble down at the firehouse..."

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And he told his boys the whole story. Well, most of the story. He left out the accusations Dorrie's brother had made, and he didn't go into the details of Jax's stories about the Mafia and the CIA. But he did tell them that Jax was most likely responsible for Clarke's accident and the break-in at Helping Hands.

"So that's why I want to hold off putting your name in the paper...and having you go on TV, Jess. It's bad enough these two know where your mom works and they've been in her store. The guy...this...Jax...he's smart. It wouldn't take much for him to put two and two together and figure out where we live."

"Did he really rig the brakes on Uncle Jeff's truck, Dad?" Andy asked.

"We can't prove it..." Kelly said. "But yeah. Yeah...he did it."

He looked hard at Jesse. He was most concerned about how he was taking all this.

"Do you understand why I'm doin' this, Jess?" he asked. "I'm just worried about our family's safety."

Jesse nodded. He knew his dad wouldn't make a decision this big without a good reason. But he was still disappointed.

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Dorrie shook Jax roughly by the shoulder.

"Wake up!" she said. "They're goin' somewhere!"

Jax startled...and tried to focus.

The retard was right. The woman...the baby...and the black kid were on the move.

Dorrie was reaching for the door handle.

"Where do you think you're goin'?" he said, reaching across to stop her.

"I'm gonna follow 'em." she answered. "Maybe they're goin' to Kelly's house!"

"Stay in the goddamn car! You wanna blow our cover?"

Dorrie'd stick out like a sore thumb...with her brassy orange hair and her clothes that didn't fit over her body. Even the way she walked...with her fat feet slapping on the pavement was bound to call attention.

'Course...he didn't exactly blend in either.

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Jax started the car...and checked to make sure no one was looking at them suspiciously. This was a cop and firefighter neighborhood, after all. Then he pulled away from the curb and started trolling down the block.

He passed the Severide's house.

"What're you doin'?" Dorrie cried. "You went right past it!"

"Relax...I'm just gonna circle the block."

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EmmaLynn watched the Mitsubishi speed up as it passed them. There was something strange about it. The driver and the passenger looked like they didn't go together...it just felt 'off'. She tried to get a look at the license plate, but Ainsley tugged on her arm.

"C'mon Mama!" she said. "I wanna play with Maggie...an' I gotta give her this!"

The little girl was clutching an envelope in her hand.

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They walked down to Alyssa and Kelly's and EmmaLynn turned the stroller into the drive. Hardly anybody used the front door there. Everybody except census takers and Jehovah's Witnesses went around the back.

As soon as Lyssa opened the door Ainsley went running to find Maggie.

EmmaLynn stepped into the four seasons room and passed Trevor off to his godmother.

"Hope it's okay...us just barging in like this." she said to her sister-in-law. "Ainsley wanted to give Maggie something."

"What's that?" Lyssa said distractedly. "My goodness..."

She bounced her nephew on her hip.

"Pretty soon Aunt Lyssa won't be able to pick you up anymore! You're so big!"

Trevor giggled as his mother reached over to pull his t-shirt over his round little tummy.

"Baby Huey..." she said. "That's what Joey calls him."

Alyssa chuckled as she mentally compared the old cartoon character to the little boy.

"Kelly rubs his belly for good luck..." she quipped.

She bounced Trevor again.

"We're gonna have to put you on a diet _Bambino_..."

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Just as she set him on his feet the girls came running in.

"Mommy! Mommy!" Maggie yelled. "I got 'vited to a party!"

She waved the pink and black invitation in the air.

"It's a _first grade_ party!" she squealed.

Alyssa held out her hand for the card, and when Maggie handed it to her she skimmed it over.

It was from one of Ainsley's classmates...one of her best friends in fact.

"Can I go, Mommy? It says to R.S.V.P.!"

"We'll look at the calendar when Daddy gets home." Alyssa told her.

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"Where is Kelly?" EmmaLynn asked.

Alyssa lowered her voice.

"He took Andy and Jesse somewhere...he wanted to tell them about...you know...without little ears everywhere."

EmmaLynn nodded.

"Mommy...can we play outside?" Maggie asked. "Can we color on the sidewalk?"

"Sure..." Alyssa said.

There wouldn't be too many more days they could enjoy before the weather turned.

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Jax had to circle the block three times before he found a spot with a good vantage point of 6134 Byron. And just in time...

Alyssa and EmmaLynn came around from the back of the house carrying a plastic basket between them. And when he zoomed in with the telephoto lens, Jax saw it was filled with toy trucks.

The two women settled themselves on the front steps while Maggie and Ainsley began drawing with colored chalk on the sidewalk and the two little ones dived into the basket to play.

They were totally aware of the high-speed shutter clicking away, capturing dozens of images every second.

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It was almost dinner time when Kelly and the twins came home. And while Andy and Jesse went to get washed up, he came up behind Alyssa and took her in his arms.

He closed his eyes and let himself take a breath. Telling the boys all that had been going on hadn't been easy. Even though they were growing up...his every instinct as a parent was still to protect and shield them from all the ugliness outside these four walls.

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But he was interrupted by arguing in the front room...growing louder by the moment.

"Well, you _can't_ go! You wasn't _'vited_!" Maggie teased.

"Wexie wanna go. It's not fair!"

"It's a _first grade_ party...an' you're just a pre-school _baby_!"

"You not in firs' grade...you in kindergarten!" Lexi pointed out.

"But I'm _special_...'cause I'm Ainsley's cousin." Maggie replied smugly.

"Wexie Ainsley cousin too..."

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"Hey!" Kelly's voice boomed as he came into the living room. "What's goin' on?"

Lexi came running up to her daddy, hugging him around the legs.

"Daddy! Maggie call Wexie a baby!"

"You _are_ a baby!"

"Am _not_!" Lexi hollered. "Wexie _big_! Wexie big as _you_!"

"You only _three_!" Maggie countered. "I'm five and _a half_!"

"Enough!" Kelly snapped. "Enough with the teasing!"

His patience was wearing thin. He was tired of the bickering back and forth...and he was tired of Maggie's attitude.

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"Wanna go to a party at Chuck E. Cheese..." Lexi grumbled.

"You hafta be 'vited to a party." Maggie said. "And you wasn't 'vited!"

"That's enough, Maggie Grace."

"Daddy...I got 'vited to Molly's party!" Maggie told him proudly. "Molly's in Ainsley's class...an' she 'vited me!"

"Little girls who talk nasty to their sisters don't deserve to go to parties." Kelly said firmly.

"But Daddy...it's a _first grade_ party!"

"I don't care if it's a first grade party. You need to stop with the teasing and the name-calling and the nasty talk. You need to learn it's not all about Maggie." Kelly told her.

"But I'm the only kindergartener that got 'vited!" Maggie cried.

"Well, I'm sorry...but you're not going."

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It was a spur of the moment decision...but Maggie had just pushed his buttons one too many times.

"But _Daddy_!"

"No 'but Daddy'." he said. "That's it. No party. And you need to think about your attitude, Maggie Grace."

Tears streamed down the little girl's face.

She couldn't believe this was happening.

"You're the worstest, _meanest_ Daddy in the whole world!" Maggie screamed before she ran around Kelly and up the stairs.


	32. Chapter 32

**Chapter 32**

"Jeez...you look like death warmed over." Casey said as he slipped into a seat beside his fellow lieutenant in the briefing room.

Severide just looked at his buddy through tired eyes.

Death warmed over would have been a major improvement to how he felt.

Usually forty-eight hours with his family flew by...but these past two days...every single minute felt like an hour.

Maggie had cried and pouted through the whole weekend after he told her she couldn't go to a birthday party. And she called him the "worstest, meanest Daddy in the whole world". It was like a thousand knives stabbing him...every one straight through the heart.

He almost caved and said she could go...when he didn't think he could stand it anymore. But Lyssa told him he'd done the right thing...and he had to be strong. If he went back on his word...then Maggie would never learn.

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"What's in the bags?"

Dorrie was excited as a kid on Christmas morning when Jax came into her room with half a dozen huge bags from Big Lots.

"You'll see..." he said. "It's for the next phase of the case. The word is your firefighter's in serious danger...an' we gotta exfiltrate him ASAP. It's gonna go down any day now."

"What does that mean? It sounds bad!"

"It is...Nicholas is makin' a big power move...an' Joseph and James are planning a counter move. Kelly could get caught in the middle...so we gotta get him out of there. Today."

"Today?" Dorrie shrieked. "He's coming today!"

She started jumping up and down...

Jesus...she was fat...Jax thought. She might kill herself if her boobs smacked her in the head.

"Yeah...but we got a lot of work to do...so let's go through this stuff."

Dorrie started tearing through the bags.

"It's all for kids...for girls." she said. "What's this gotta do with Kelly comin' here?"

Jax said one word.

"Bait."

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It was a quiet morning at Station 51...all the mundane chores...paperwork.

Severide even managed to get in a nap.

But just as the team was finishing up with lunch...

"Engine 51...Truck 81...Ambulance 61...Squad 3..."

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"Holy Mother of God..." Tony breathed as he pulled the Squad up on the scene.

It was unusual for Tony to say anything...let alone invoke the name of any Deity. But he wasn't kidding.

Kelly jumped down from his seat and surveyed the scene. It was like something out of a movie.

They were standing in a seldom used rail yard just inside the city limits. And Severide counted three...four...five...six...seven...eight separate fires. Empty boxcars were burning...and years of grease were making the smoke pitch black. Flames shot through the smoke like demonic tongues licking at the wood. Coal cars were burning, adding coal dust to the mix...and an old, broken down engine was engulfed in flames.

There had to be something in that engine. There was nothing flammable that could have it burning like that except...

"Get down!" Severide yelled to his men. "Take cover!"

They ducked around the back of the squad just in time.

An enormous fireball shot up into the sky...and the accompanying explosion shook the earth so violently it brought the men to their knees.

Once the aftershock had dissipated, Kelly struggled to get his legs back up under him. He'd never been terrified at a fire before...but this had to be the worst he'd seen in terms of sheer flame. And it had the potential to get even bigger.

"Everybody okay?" he asked his men. "You good?"

One by one they all nodded. Tony. Mills. Newhouse. Reliever...what was his name? Santos...that was it. Charlie Santos.

"Chief?" Severide said into the radio. "Whaddya got for us in the way of backup?"

They were gonna need to search...make sure no one was caught in the maelstrom. And they had to find out if there were any fuel tanks on the premises. One diesel storage cache could take out a square block and then some.

"Dispatch!" Boden hollered into the radio. "We have a level five situation! Repeat! Level Five! Roll every available unit!"

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Engine 51 went east...Truck 81 went west to get water on the fires. And as much as he didn't want to, Severide split his team to cover more ground. He sent Mills and Tony in one direction and he took Newhouse and Santos with him.

"I want check-in's every two to three minutes!" he ordered. "And first sign of trouble, get the hell outta there! No heroes! Got it?"

Everyone nodded.

"Good luck, guys..." Mills said as he and Tony went off toward where Engine 51 was dumping everything they had on a group of cars.

Severide took his men to the west end of the lot. He pulled his mask into place and the others followed suit. Then he took the lead and began to check car after car.

About six boxcars into their search he heard screams...lots of them.

Kelly switched his direction and ran toward a car surrounded by a ring of fire...and through the choking black smoke he could just barely make out a group of kids...teenagers.

He hurriedly looked for a way around the flames, but there was none.

"Chief!" he yelled. "Get somebody over here with a line! We're seventy-five yards to the right of Truck 81's position! We've got a bunch a' kids over here!"

"Copy that!" Boden said.

Severide turned to his men.

"All right, on me!" he said. "Let's go!"

And he charged straight through the fire.

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"Help!" a boy screamed. "Get us outta here!"

"AAAHHHH!" another boy screamed.

His back was burning and Newhouse hit him with a flying tackle, taking him down and rolling his body on the ground. He slapped the remaining flames with his gloves and scooped the victim up just as Hermann, Cruz and Otis began showering them with water.

"Go!" Severide yelled.

"I'll be right back!" Newhouse replied as he carried the boy toward the ambulance.

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Severide turned back to his job.

"C'mon!" he yelled to a boy and a girl huddling under the boxcar.

The boy darted out and the reliever caught him and ushered him through the spray and away from the flames. But the girl was paralyzed with fear.

"C'mon!" he yelled again. "I got you!"

He rushed toward the girl and shielded her with his body as a wall of flame shot up to his left.

"C'mon! Let's go! This way!"

Kelly put the girl on his right side and led her away from the flames.

"Keep moving!" he told her. "We can't stop!"

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Dorrie rearranged the dolls again on the blowup mattress with the Cinderella sleeping bag on top of it. Jax had bought...like...ten Barbies, and a Barbie head you could fix the hair and put make-up on. He bought coloring books and play dishes and a little folding table and two chairs. There was a pink teddy bear and a stuffed unicorn.

And he bought candy and Twinkies and cookies and juice boxes in two different flavors.

Then he went out right before lunch time and told her to stay put till he got back.

He was bringing her a surprise...he said.

She wondered what that surprise could be. Jax said Kelly would be there...but she didn't think Jax could bring him. Kelly was too big and strong...and Jax was kinda puny.

Whatever her surprise was...she wished he'd hurry up.

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The CFD had a full scale disaster on its hands.

The fire in the rail yard was still burning out of control after more than two hours.

The CPD had been called in to evacuate civilians in a three block radius of the scene. There were half a dozen tanks of diesel fuel on the yard and no one knew how much was in any of them. There was grease and coal dust...not to mention wood. Add trash and weeds and the fact that there had been no rain for two weeks...and the wind was picking up. One good gust could carry the burning embers beyond the perimeter the firefighters had established and were battling to maintain.

The group of kids Squad 3 had found had ditched school to go get high in the empty boxcars. One boy was taken to Loyola with burns over fifty percent of his body. The others had been taken to Lakeshore to get checked out.

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Maggie wanted to play with Ainsley after school so EmmaLynn called Alyssa to ask if it was okay.

It had been such a miserable weekend, and Alyssa just wanted everything to get back to normal so she said 'fine'. It was a beautiful fall day...the kids could play outside...what could be better?

She even took Trevor down by her house to play with Lexi.

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Everyone was caught up in their activities. EmmaLynn was folding laundry in the front room so she could keep an eye on the girls playing on the sidewalk in front of the house. Lyssa had the two little ones out in the four seasons room while she baked cookies and brownies to freeze for the Halloween Bake Sale at St. Pasqual's annual carnival. And while she kept her ears peeled for sounds of trouble, she had her eyes glued to the small television she had in the kitchen. There was live coverage of a huge fire at a rail yard...and Station 51 was on the scene.

With all that was going on, nobody noticed a black SUV trolling down Byron.

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Kelly was tired. Exhausted. He'd been going full throttle since they rolled up. There were a half dozen other companies that showed up. Squad 1 and Squad 5 were there as well.

Besides the kids, Squad 3 had found a security guard down toward the back of the yard. But it was too late for the poor guy. He was burned beyond recognition...the only thing that gave him away as a security guard was the badge beside the body.

There were three more guards trying to fight the raging inferno with fire extinguishers. Casey's team had pulled them back.

And that was it for the civilians.

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Finally, slowly but surely, the blaze was coming under control.

As Severide, Mills and Tony moved in to take over the hose line for the guys from Truck 94, Kelly just hoped the water would hold out.

Engine 51 had left to refill it's tanks. 81 was going to have to go too in a little while.

This was the biggest firefighting effort Chicago had seen in a long, long time.

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EmmaLynn was carrying the last of her clean laundry into the living room when she heard a blood-curdling scream from outside. She dropped the basket and ran out the front door.

Ainsley was lying sprawled on the sidewalk, sobbing uncontrollably. Her mother ran to her and picked her up. The little girl's hands and knees were scraped and bloody...and EmmaLynn pushed the unruly black curls off her daughter's face to see scrapes along her right cheek as well.

"What happened, Honey?" she said. "Tell Mama what happened."

"A man!" Ainsley cried hysterically. "A bad man got outta his car an' push me hard! He push me...and I fell down!"

EmmaLynn hugged Ainsley to her and whirled around...looking up and down the street.

Where was Maggie?

"Maggie!" she yelled. "Maggie? Where are you? Maggie Grace?!"

"The man took her, Mama!" Ainsley sobbed. "He push me down...an' he grab Maggie an' put her in the car! Then he got in an' droved away!"

"Maggie!" EmmaLynn yelled again. "MAGGIE!"


	33. Chapter 33

**Chapter 33**

Cop cars were swarming up and down Byron Street. Officers were going up and down the block...up and down alley ways...looking for a little girl with strawberry blonde curls.

EmmaLynn had come running down to Alyssa and Kelly's carrying Ainsley in her arms. She was so hysterical at first Lyssa had had a hard time understanding her...but Maggie wasn't with them...and the blood had drained from Lyssa's face as she grabbed the phone to dial 911.

The police came...Joey came...Nicky came. But no one could get a hold of Kelly. His cell went straight to voicemail. And city dispatch wouldn't do anything except to say Lieutenant Severide was out on a call.

"I can see that!" Alyssa screamed into the phone. "It's right there on the TV! But I need to get a hold of my husband!"

"I'm sorry, ma'am...there's nothing I can do."

She slammed the phone down in frustration.

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Dorrie heard the door slam from upstairs...and...crying?

She picked herself up from her dirty mattress and wandered toward the basement door.

"Jax?" she called out. "Jax? Is that you?"

The door at the top of the rickety staircase opened and shut quickly...and the crying got louder and more and more frantic.

"Shut the hell up you little brat!" Jax spat in frustration. "Jesus Christ...quit crying!"

"I want my mommy!" a little girl shrieked. "I want my daddy!"

"Jax? What's goin' on?" Dorrie asked.

"Here!" he said, shoving the little girl in his arms at her. "Take 'er an' shut 'er up!"

Dorrie looked down at Kelly's daughter.

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"Jax!" she screamed. "What'd you do?"

"I tol' you...she's the bait! Now your firefighter's gonna hafta come get her!"

"But you _kidnapped_ her!" Dorrie cried. "If they catch you you're gonna go to jail!"

"Shut _up_ you stupid retard! This is all part of the operation! This is government sanctioned!"

"DON'T CALL ME A RETARD!"

"That's what you _are_!" he screamed at her. "How many times do I gotta fuckin' tell you? This is a CIA operation! Nobody's gonna get in trouble! I'm prob'ly gonna get a fuckin' medal!"

"I wanna go home!" Maggie cried. "Jus' take me back to my mommy an' daddy!"

"You shut up too!" Jax yelled.

He glared at Dorrie.

"Take care 'a her!" he said. "I'm goin' out. I'll be back later!"

He stomped back up the stairs and slammed the basement door behind him.

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Dorrie looked down at the sobbing child and licked her lips nervously. She'd never been around a kid this little...at least not by herself. She'd never been in charge of somebody else before.

"What's your name?" she asked.

She knew Kelly had two little girls...but she didn't know which was which.

The little girl gasped and hiccupped...as she tried to talk.

"Maggie..." she whispered.

Dorrie swallowed hard. She had to remember she was the grown-up here...

"I'm Dorrie..." she said. "I got some toys...you wanna play?"

Maggie shook her head.

"I wanna go home." she whispered. "Can I please go home? I wan' my daddy."

"You're daddy's gonna come get you here." Dorrie told her. That's what Jax meant to happen, wasn't it? That's how Kelly was gonna come today, right? "You jus' gotta wait for him."

Maggie looked at the strange lady...she didn't really look like any grown-up she'd ever seen. Dorrie's hair was a funny orange color...like a clown...and it stuck straight out in places and was plastered to her head in others. Her clothes didn't match...an' they didn't fit over her tummy an' 'round the middle. An' there was jus' somethin' in her eyes...somethin' not right.

But the lady said daddy was comin'...she jus' had to wait for him.

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Mouch's car screeched to a halt in the middle of Byron and he jumped out...not caring that he was blocking the street.

"Sir...you can't come in here." a young police officer told him as he tried to get up Severide's driveway.

"My name's Randy McHolland...I just heard the Amber Alert on the radio." he said breathlessly. "That's my niece they're talking 'bout..."

The officer looked the older gentleman up and down...then nodded to let him pass.

It prob'ly didn't hurt that Mouch had rushed right over from work, and he was wearing his security guard uniform.

He hustled around the back and went through the same spiel with another officer at the door...then, finally, Mouch was allowed to pass and he hurried into the house.

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It was chaos...officers milling around...talking on cell phones...talking to one another...grabbing pictures out of frames.

Alyssa was sitting in the living room...Lexi on her lap, her mother beside her.

Mouch passed Andy and Jesse sitting on the stairs, looking shell-shocked...and Benny pacing back and forth.

"Randy..." he said as he caught sight of the firefighter.

He was relieved to finally have a "brother" here.

The two clasped one another in a quick 'man-hug'.

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"What happened?" Mouch asked.

"Maggie and Ainsley were playing down by Joey's...and some animal just grabbed her off the street." Benny said. "They can't get a hold of Kelly...he's still caught up in that mess over at the train yard."

Half the firefighters in Chicago were still trying to contain the blaze. The Commissioner had even activated relief companies so the city wasn't left unprotected.

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Before Mouch could say anything...Lexi caught sight of him.

"Mouse!" she cried, wiggling out of Alyssa's arms. "Ucky Mouse!"

She ran across the living room and launched herself at her favorite babysitter.

"Ucky Mouse...somebody tooked Maggie in a car!" she told him. "Why dey do dat?"

"I don't know, Sweetie..." Mouch told her as he held her close. "But we're gonna find her."

Alyssa broke free of all the cops and the family surrounding her.

"Mouch..." she said, as she approached him.

He opened his arm and hugged his friend's wife.

"Lyssa...I came as soon as I heard."

"I can't...I don't...what...this..." she couldn't even get a thought out.

It was all so crazy...like everything was swirling around her.

"We're gonna find her, Lyssa." Mouch said...his voice steady and reassuring. "We're gonna get her back."

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Antonio Dawson pulled up at the perimeter of the rail yard, his tires spraying gravel all over as he slammed on the brakes and threw it in park. He jumped out of the car, lights still going...engine still running. He flashed his badge and ducked under the tape.

It took him a second to get his bearings and see what was where. Then he saw Chief Boden and jogged over to him.

"Chief...I gotta talk to Severide." he said.

"Sorry, Detective..." Boden replied. "No can do..."

"Chief...it's important." Antonio hissed. "Maggie's been kidnapped!"

Boden leveled a stare at him.

"I know that..." he said. "It's all over the radio. But look around you. Do you see what we're dealing with?"

The detective took in the whole scene...four...no...five separate fires...about twenty pieces of equipment. Truck 42 had its snorkel up...firing the water cannon down on what looked to be an engine. Men were running everywhere, tugging on lines. Even more staggered back to the command center to change out gear and grab a bottle of water and breathe for just a few minutes.

"Lieutenant Severide is needed here." Boden said. "I can't have him distracted...losing focus."

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"When's my daddy comin'?" Maggie asked.

She was sitting on the air mattress, brushing one of the Barbie's hair. The fat lady really did have toys...lots of 'em. Not as many as at home...but she had a bunch of new dolls with pretty clothes an' stuff.

"Soon." Dorrie said. "Kelly's gonna come real soon."

"You know my daddy?"

Dorrie smiled. Just thinking 'bout Kelly made her feel all happy inside.

She nodded.

"He saved me when my car got crashed in a accident..." she said.

"That's his job." Maggie said. "My daddy rescues peoples every day."

Dorrie pursed her lips together.

She knew she shouldn't yell at the little girl. Maggie was too little to understand how it was with her and Kelly.

"Well...this was special. He pulled me outta the car 'fore it falled over the railing." she said. "An' as soon as Kelly comes to get you...all three of us is gonna go on a 'bacation. We gonna go to Disneyland!"

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Maggie's eyes lit up.

She always wanted to go to Disneyland.

Andy an' Jesse had gone to Disney World when they was little...but she never got to go. An' Daddy promised they'd go someday...someday real soon!

"What 'bout Mommy?" she asked. "An' Andy an' Jesse? What 'bout Lexi?"

It wouldn't be nice to leave her baby sister out. Daddy would prob'ly get mad. 'Specially since Maggie was 'posed to be nicer to Lexi.

"Maybe they can go another time." Dorrie said. "This is gonna be a 'pecial trip. An' its jus' gonna be the three of us."

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Antonio Dawson was on his phone when he saw Severide coming in.

The man looked dead on his feet. His face was smeared with sweat and soot and grime and he just looked exhausted.

Someone handed him a bottle of water and Kelly nodded his thanks. Then he pulled off his helmet, let it fall to the ground and put the tip of one finger of his glove between his teeth to take it off. He twisted the cap off the water bottle with one quick motion and poured it over his head.

Then he tossed it aside and reached for another one. This time he took a long, deep drink.

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Antonio ended his call and looked up at Boden.

The two men had a silent conversation...and Chief nodded.

Dawson nodded back and headed off in Severide's direction.

"Kelly." Antonio called out as he approached the Lieutenant.

Severide looked up to see the detective coming toward him.

"Antonio...what's goin' on?"

He didn't like the look on his friend's face.

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Dawson stuffed his hands deep in his pockets and looked down at the ground.

This was harder than he'd thought it'd be.

"What?" Severide asked again.

Antonio took a deep breath and looked Kelly in the eye.

"I don' know how to tell you...other than jus' say it." he said. "Maggie's missing."

"Whaddya mean 'she's missing'?"

"She was down at your brother-in-law's house...an' they were playin' outside...an' somebody jumped outta a car. He pushed your niece down and snatched Maggie..."

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Kelly could feel the breath leave his body...he blinked...suddenly everything sounded very far away.

His Baby Girl...missing...gone...

He staggered back a step and Antonio's hands shot out to grab him by the shoulders. He gave Kelly a not so gentle shake.

"I'm here to take ya down to the station...Lyssa's already there."

But Kelly still wasn't comprehending it all.

Maggie...Maggie...gone?

"C'mon!" Antonio said as he propelled Severide toward his car. "Let's go..."

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Alyssa hugged herself tightly.

This wasn't happening...she told herself. This couldn't be real.

But it was. She was down at the police precinct...Joey and EmmaLynn were there. Nicky was there. And little Ainsley was trying to tell a young female officer what the man who pushed her down and took Maggie looked like.

The officer was painstakingly clicking through lists of features...trying to put together a composite on the computer. White...thin-ish face...black hair...kind of on the long side. Black eyebrows...thin, pointy nose. Piercings...

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She felt Mouch's hands on her shoulders.

She was glad the older firefighter was there...and she knew he loved Maggie as much as if she was his own child.

But where was Kelly? That was the only person she wanted to see right now...the only one she wanted to hold her. She needed him...she needed his strength. She squeezed her eyes shut tight...and prayed he could get there soon.

When she opened them again, she saw the picture that was beginning to emerge on the screen. And her mouth went dry when she realized who had taken her daughter.

"Oh my God..." she whispered. "It's him..."


End file.
